ST. LOUIS – Sarah Russell is no longer employed by the City of St. Louis and is out from her role as St. Louis City’s Emergency Management (CEMA) Commissioner, FOX 2 News has learned.
Russell was placed on leave in May, less than a week after a deadly E-3 tornado ripped through St. Louis. The move followed failures within the city’s tornado siren system, which never sounded as the May 16 tornado caused major damage and led to five deaths.
According to a follow-up investigative report on the city’s tornado response, prepared by the law firm Carmody MacDonald and released Monday, in addition to previous FOX 2 reporting:
- Russell was not in the CEMA office when the tornado touched down
- Russell and CEMA STAFF were instead attending a workshop at another downtown St. Louis location, which left them unable to activate the sirens from the office
- A communications breakdown resulted in no one activating the sirens, so the sirens failed to sound
- Even if the sirens had been activated, the report noted many residents would not have heard them
The report uncovered what investigators called “multiple cascading failures at almost every level leading up to and even after the storm event.”…