St. Louis CEMA Chief Placed on Leave for Not Activating Tornado Sirens
My blood is boiling.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer placed City Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) Sarah Russell on leave pending an investigation into why the agency did not activate tornado sirens last Friday.
An EF-3 tornado ripped through parts of the city, killing five people.
After learning of the failure of the sirens to be activated, Mayor Spencer immediately ordered an internal investigation. The initial focus was to correct the immediate issue, which Mayor Spencer did by changing the siren activation protocol to clearly place the responsibility of activating the sirens with the Fire Department. However, as the investigation continued, it became increasingly clear that there was not just one serious issue, but multiple. The mayor has directed her staff to initiate an external investigation to fully explore this and any other potential issues.
Friday afternoon, CEMA staff, including Russell, were at a workshop at 1520 Market St. and were not at the CEMA office located at 1915 Olive St., where CEMA’s siren activation button is located, despite anticipated storms. As a result, when a tornado warning was issued, Russell or other CEMA staff could not personally activate the siren, and Russell contacted the Fire Department.
At that point, there was a breakdown in communication. The directive to activate the sirens was ambiguous, which cannot happen when a tornado is sweeping through our City and St. Louisans’ safety depends on being alerted immediately.
“CEMA exists, in large part, to alert the public to dangers caused by severe weather, and the office failed to do that in the most horrific and deadly storm our City has seen in my lifetime.” stated Mayor Spencer. “Commissioner Russell has served our City for years and is a person of good will, but I cannot move on from this without providing accountability and ensuring that our emergency management is in trusted hands.”
I am a weather nut. At the last minute, I decided not to go to OU for meteorology but to attend OSU since my parents lived in Stillwater. Free room and board! You cannot beat that.
Everyone knew last Friday would be an active day in the St. Louis area.
“We knew there was weather coming. We should have been at the button. I don’t know why that decision was made. I don’t agree with that decision,” Spencer told KMOV.
No workshop trumps being prepared for severe storms. Nothing trumps severe weather.
Tornadoes are unpredictable. Not everyone has access to a weather radio. Not everyone has weather alerts activated on their phone.
The fire department said its siren activation button did not work. The department activated CEMA’s button.
Spencer said the fire department and CEMA tornado siren buttons fall under CEMA’s responsibility.
The fire department will have someone at CEMA at all times. Yes, 24 hours a day.
According to KMOV, they tested the sirens at 3 PM on Tuesday.
You mean to tell me that no one noticed the fire department’s siren button did not work?
Guys, it gets worse. KMOV found disturbing news in the 2022-2023 audit:
First Alert 4 found this city-run audit from 2022 to 2023 of the City Emergency Management Agency. The audit explains there was no formal policy and procedure manual, which can “lead to problems understanding each other.”
That same city audit also found the outdoor warning sirens to be “inadequate.” The 2024 budget had $3.4 million dollars allocated to replace the system.
Mayor Spencer said it wasn’t completed but she is looking to expedite it now.
“Shifting it to be more automated system, removing the human error and unfortunately that wasn’t done yet,” Mayor Spencer said.
If you live in tornado alley, Dixie Alley, or anywhere prone to tornadoes, listen to me now:
- Get a NOAA weather radio.
- Activate weather alerts on your phone via whatever app you use (I use Weather Bug and love it).
- Tune into YouTube weather chasers/meteorologists who cover storms anywhere in the country. My favorite is Max Velocity.
- Follow your local NWS office on all social media platforms
- When there is a chance for severe weather, keep an eye on the sky and radar. Stay home out of caution or leave work early.
You can also follow my weather list on X.
After the 2013 Moore tornado, Oklahoma now allows parents to either keep their kids home or check them out early with no attendance punishment on risky days.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
In my area, emergency/tornado sirens are tested every Wednesday at Noon.
That person was just suspended for gross negligence that may have contributed to loss of life; seems to me prosecution is more appropriate.
I used to go out and look for tornados when the sirens went off but there are so many false alarms that it’s not worth the trouble anymore.
Well, at least she wasn’t relieved of her duties.
How can you say that?
Because she was not performing any duties. She wasn’t doing anything. She has been put on leave and she’s still not doing anything.
5 people are dead. I wonder what the workshop entailed. I can’t help but notice that Sarah Russell resembles the 3 incompetent losers that run LAFD.
Is it time to put white males back in charge yet?
Incompetency knows not sex, but not knowing sex seems to breed the incompetent.
I have become uncomfortable with the frequent incompetence of female leaders. Perhaps I am overly sensitive to gender in this regard. But I have begun to wonder just how much we owe to testosterone in moving civilization forward. It seems women really are more comfortable making group decisions, and of reaching consensuses within the group. Most of all, it seems true that women favor security over risk, while men – those little devils – seem intrigued and excited by risk. I base these observations, not from any scientific study, but from a lifetime of studying human beings.
You guessed it in one.
“CEMA Commissioner Sarah Russell, who goes by “They/Them” pronouns, is on paid leave after she failed to activate the St. Louis tornado sirens.”
Although I must be fair and say that it does not automatically follow that just because she/they/sure Jan is confused, she/they/you’re kidding, right? is automatically incompetent. I mean she/they/Oh the Hell with this IS incompetent, but there’s no predetermined reason for that.
It’s just a coincidence that happens to the same coincidence that happened in L.A.
Yep, one look at that butch haircut and my g*ydar light up like a Christmas tree.
An invitation to the workshop, obtained by the Post-Dispatch, said “climate change will continue to create new uncertainties and pose disruptions,” and that the workshop would help participants “learn and develop skills to increase agility and collaboration in city functions” so that employees can “respond nimbly and effectively.”
https://archive.ph/BV5Kx
Thanks! “Nimbly and effectively” is especially rich in the context of the failure to press a button.
By the looks of her I’d say the workshop was on buffet evaluation and alternate choices if the bacon and chicken wings ran out. I read Stacy “The Buffet Slayer” Abrams was a guest speaker.
What was the content of the “workshop”?
Pronouns, probably.
I never really thought about it before. But, I always presumed that the tornado sirens were triggered by the National Weather Service as part of the Emergency Alert System. It’s unsettling to know that county ‘officials’ have that responsibility….and this idiot perfectly demonstrates why it’s unsettling. She doesn’t know where the warning button was but I bet she can name the five closest donut shops to her at any given moment.
It’s clear from her pic that her brain is smaller than her mouth.
I don’t have anything activated on my phone, but I get weather alerts.
Everyone knew last Friday would be an active day in the St. Louis area.
I agree. I live in WA State, and I was aware of the various degrees of thunderstorm, high wind, and tornado threats. Local news was covering it. National news was covering it. Government sources were delivering the message of the threat. It was online, it was on TV. It was on radio. I believe the citizens in MO have access to these technologies too. How is it that anyone actually in the area of the threat was unaware?
Yes, this person needs to go. A better protocol (possibly delegating authority to press the button to more than one person or office) is needed. But in this connected age, it’s hard to believe that anyone died for not being aware of the threat.
This is another cautionary tale: Don’t rely on the government for your safety.
While not excusing what Russell failed to do, the above quote is ridiculous.
I am tired of people not being prepared or listening to radio, television and even looking at a weather map when severe weather is heading their way.
I would almost bet that people are too busy texting and playing angry burds than to watch the weather.
For God’s sake, take some responsibility for your own life and safety.
There was a video of a construction crew (I think it was a road or sewer crew) working in a St Louis neighborhood when the tornado descended literally right on top of them. One of them got out of his rig right before it was crushed by a falling tree. He clearly would have been killed. It’s not like these guys can sit around watching weather radar all day. They’re working men stuck outside working all the time in inclement weather. Government should be able to competently provide basic, critical infrastructure…like early warning tornado warnings in Tornado Alley. Instead of doing that, this woman was at a DEI ‘seminar.’
You don’t have to sit around watching the weather all day if tornadoes are forecast. You ever heard of NOAA Emergency Warnings and those nifty radios that let out a deafening tone? I’ve got 2 solar powered ones.
In your truck? At your outdoor workplace, in a ditch or up a telephone pole?
Yeah, I’ve got one in a vehicle I drive and one at the house. I also have alerts on my phone. If there were tornado warnings then working outside would be the perfect place to have one.
You ever stood next to a piece of heavy equipment when the diesel is running? They don’t make a portable radio that can be heard over that. Plus, the operator is likely wearing hearing protection, which further reduces the chance a radio can be heard.
No. Never in cutting pulp did I stand next to a skidder or in my over 30 years of running a semi down the road. Nope. Not once. On a job not everyone is standing right next to an engine or wearing ear protection.
BTW: there are many ANSI approved hearing protection devices that allow you to listen to the radio over them. If the engine is too loud to hear anything then how is a distant siren going to be heard? You make no sense.
You are an extraordinary human being.
They don’t have to “watch weather radar all day long.”
Everyday the men and women get briefed on the jobs and what hazards they may be facing that day. That includes weather.
Knowing that there is bad weather coming, if you aren’t watching for it, that is a lack of responsibility on your part. It is also a lack of accountability on any site supervisor whose primary job is to make sure their people are safe.
It is sad that many people on this site want government out of their lives, tell people to be accountable for their actions, and then because a DEI hire screws up, individuals are not responsible for their own lack of awareness and preparation.
I live on the coast of Florida. It is amazing the number of people who ignore hurricane warnings and don’t stock up on basic items, and then complain when the government doesn’t help them,
The government has certain responsibilities.
They should not be nannies and hold our hands because we won’t do basic safety measures ourselves.
Yeah! Hell YEAH!
The 54 people killed by tornados in 2024 all should have just paid better attention. I mean it’s not like tornados travel at 70 mph and make rapid unpredictable changes in path.
Why even try to help people! For God’s sake, take some responsibility for your own life and safety because only the strong should survive.
She really only had one job to do.
I REALLY want to know what the workshop was about, just to satisfy my curiosity as I suspect it was dIveRsiTy related…going by her picture!
probably go to work for karen bass next year
She kind of looks like Shrek to me. Not that it matters if she was competent which she/he/they/them/whatever isn’t.
I’m sorry. “Shrek” got it in one. I bow to you, sir.
“The fire department said its siren activation button did not work”
So then, mil-spec, like the Pentagon ATC lines to DCA.
“You mean to tell me that no one noticed the fire department’s siren button did not work?”
I’m sure whoever designed the impromptu siren test protocol concentrated on testing the siren, not the siren button. The tests are probably always run from the button in the CEMA office, and the fire department doesn’t ever get a turn.
I remember the days before weather alerts on phones and when my city didn’t have a warning siren. What did we do? Well, we knew when storms were moving in and we took precautions.
Ultimately individuals only have themselves to rely on when the shit hits the fan.
Sadly those days appear to be behind us.
My town (LI’s hometown) had a siren for civil defense ever since WWII — well, more like a buzzer. It went HONK! Long pause, HONK! every noon (except Sundays because that would be sacreligious). They never use it for emergencies, like, say, coastal hurricanes. It was a lunch break alarm ONLY. And no worry about tornados, we just passed an ordinance making those illegal.
I remember the big to-do we had when the town police chief unearthed a nest of Cuban spies who had nearly completed plans to invade the town precisely at noon (on any day but Sunday). It completely stole the news cycle from the annual Whale Hunt.
When she stepped up to the mic I had a flashback to the 3 Lesbians in LA. Fat, lesbian Dei hire. How many people need to die before this crap stops and competent people are put in charge?
It gets worse.
Audit the networking of their 911 systems. They don’t have the redundancy they are supposed to in either the topology NOR the people needed to bring it back up. Literally a single skilled engineer.
The thing is- no one ever audits this stuff.
YOU will find out when it goes down during a major event…. and people WILL die.
Yeah OK the person must be replaced. But those emergency weather alerts go off so often that people come to ignore them. Most people dont run and hide in closet stocked with emergency food rations.
And yet here is a plausible possibility for the American obesity epidemic that has been largely overlooked.
I live in St Louis. Spencer is our new mayor, who has been on the job for about 5 weeks. As you probably know, we’re a very blue city in a red state, so Spencer is a lib/prog. She inherited a dysfunctional city from an incompetent, racist black woman. While i don’t agree with Spencer’s politics, she seems to be a very competent manager who cares about the city and isn’t afraid to make decisions or take responsibility.
The tornado cut across some of the poorest sections of St Louis. People who have very little could very well lose everything. There is a massive clean up effort going on with volunteers and donations of immediate needs are pouring in. If anyone would like to help, there are some links on the City’s website.
https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/recovery/tornado-2025/give/?
I did a Google search. Viewing the photos…one word. YIKES!
Has anyone yet figured out the biological sex of this creature? It looks like it can’t possibly be a man, and like it can’t possibly be a woman. Something’s gotta give.
She’s an artificial life form designed specifically to challenge and unseat Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Does it make you feel better to dehumanize a person like that? She’s likely a DEI hire and is clearly incompetent. What you’re doing here is what the left does on a regular basis. The right is growing because we’re actually inclusive. You’re not being helpful.
Having a system that requires a person to be physically present to press a physical button is a problem. That should only be the manual backup in case the remote system.fails. Ideally turning on the sirens shouldn’t even require manual intervention to begin with, but should be automatically triggered in response to an event captured on a monitoring system.
So then, the Hawaiian Ballistic Missile Threat Alert system… without any scapegoats to blame afterward.
I have a Midland ER310. It’s an absolutely worthless piece of Chinese junk.
Well no wonder. It has got an dog whistle. It’s racist!
For hurricanes, I suggest https://earth.nullschool.net/ It’s generally better than the weather reports.
We always watch storms like hurricanes on it. Great sight.
The picture tells the whole story. Clearly, overpaid incompetence in action.
Reporters, a request: find out whose unemployable relative she is.
Russell is more manly than “Admiral” “Rachel” Levine.