果酱视频

ST. LOUIS 鈥� The administration of Mayor Cara Spencer on Tuesday still didn鈥檛 offer details on went wrong when sirens failed to properly activate before the tornado that killed five and injured dozens.

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Moreover, official statements since the tornado have often contradicted each other.

鈥淚t is a very sensitive issue, and I want to be very, very accurate in this,鈥� Spencer said.

Anger, however, continued to mount on Tuesday. Some city officials were already railing against Spencer, who had campaigned promising to fix broken city services. Families of those killed in the tornado said they believed the sirens could have saved lives.

鈥淚 feel like they鈥檙e responsible for my mother鈥檚 death,鈥� said Reginald Holmes, whose mother Delois Holmes, 70, was one of five killed.

Holmes found his mother on the basement steps and says she was trying to take cover underground when the three-story home collapsed.

鈥淚f the sirens went off, her life would鈥檝e been saved,鈥� he said on Tuesday. 鈥淪he would鈥檝e had time to get to the basement.鈥�

Friday afternoon鈥檚 tornado touched down in Clayton and tore northeast before reaching the Mississippi River. Winds that topped 150 mph shook trees loose from the earth and rattled homes off their foundations. Cars flipped, and patios splintered. Five people were killed, and dozens were injured.

That same day, residents began to complain that they hadn鈥檛 heard the city鈥檚 emergency storm sirens 鈥� even if they were outdoors.

果酱视频 Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler, who ran against Spencer in the race for mayor, said he was outside at Forest Park when the tornado hit Friday afternoon and didn鈥檛 hear sirens. He said he took cover 鈥渟econds before the brunt of the tornado hit, but some of my friends did not.鈥�

鈥淣ow, imagine thousands of other people doing the same thing,鈥� Butler wrote in a social media post. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 a 鈥榤y bad.鈥� 鈥楬old me accountable.鈥� This is incompetence.鈥�

Even a longtime emergency management expert in Missouri wondered how the city could make such a mistake.

鈥淭hat makes no sense. How is that even possible?鈥� said Bill Brinton, who leads emergency operations in St. Joseph and Buchanan County in northwestern Missouri. 鈥淲ow. I just can鈥檛 believe that.鈥�

Spencer repeated on Tuesday that her priority was fixing the problem.

鈥淎bsolutely, we are doing our best to be transparent and forthcoming while also making sure that our focus is ensuring that it never happens again,鈥� she said.

But her administration had released conflicting statements in the days after the storm.

鈥楢 button wasn鈥檛 pushed鈥�

果酱视频 operates 60 warnings sirens that were installed in 1999. An is underway. The city has also had an online and text alert program since 2010. Tornado sirens are meant to alert people who are outside, not inside.

On Saturday, City Emergency Management Agency Commissioner Sarah Russell, at a news conference with Spencer, said the city had received 鈥渁 lot of questions about sirens, and we are looking into that.鈥�

At another news conference with Spencer the next day, Russell said that the 鈥渇ire alarm office,鈥� staffed 24 hours a day, was primarily responsible for activating the sirens. CEMA was the 鈥渟econdary activation point.鈥�

The CEMA office is small, Russell said, and works 鈥渃loser to business hours unless the need arises.鈥�

Russell also suggested at least some of the sirens sounded: 鈥淚 have received reports from people that did hear it. I鈥檝e heard from a lot of people that say they haven鈥檛 heard it.鈥�

On Monday, Spencer acknowledged for the first time publicly 鈥渁 human failure.鈥�

鈥淚n those minutes between the warning and the time that we were experiencing a massive weather event, there was a failure, a human failure, a failure in protocol to get the sirens up and running,鈥� Spencer said at a news conference.

She said the error happened because of a lack of clarity on who was supposed to set off the sirens 鈥� the fire department or emergency management.

鈥淎 button wasn鈥檛 pushed, and the sirens were not deployed,鈥� she said.

She also said she was making changes: She moved the authority for activating the sirens to the fire department.

Russell was not at the news conference.

Anger grew overnight.

Spencer called yet another press event Tuesday. She said the city was also working to automate the alarms.

鈥淲ithin a year, there will not be a need to have a human being press the button,鈥� Spencer said.

She said there had been no personnel changes at CEMA.

鈥淚 have faith in our entire team,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur team is robust.鈥�

And she promised an internal investigation on the failure.

She declined to say if she believed Russell misled the public.

鈥淵our questions, absolutely, they鈥檙e valid. They deserve an answer. They will get one. I just want to point out that we are triaging a whole host of things right now, and we want to be sensitive to that as well.鈥�

But in Spencer鈥檚 Tuesday moving authority to the fire department, she identified part of the problem.

Only one city entity, the order says 鈥� CEMA 鈥� got 鈥渄irect critical weather notifications.鈥�

And on Friday, as the storm was bearing down on the city, CEMA staff were in a workshop at a city building at 1520 Market Street.

鈥楢re you going to come and apologize?鈥�

Nicholas Brown, whose friend Juan Baltazar was killed Friday when a tree collapsed on his truck, said he can鈥檛 help but wonder if it would鈥檝e made a difference for Baltazar, who was driving back from shopping at the time.

鈥淚 wonder if there had been just a little more time, if there had been minutes to warn somebody to drive faster, to pull over, something,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淓ven if it was small, it was a chance they could鈥檝e had to save themselves, had things worked the way they were supposed to do.鈥�

Another person was killed at Centennial Christian Church in 果酱视频鈥� Fountain Park neighborhood 鈥� and volunteers at the church said they didn鈥檛 hear any sirens, according to the longtime former pastor of the church, the Rev. Derrick Perkins.

They had just finished serving lunchtime meals and were discussing future plans when the tornado hit and toppled the bell tower, trapping three people. One of them, 74-year-old Patricia Penelton, a longtime member known for feeding the homeless, was killed.

Perkins said the group didn鈥檛 have time to get to the basement.

鈥淚f those sirens had gone off, there would鈥檝e been a great chance for people to adjust and take cover,鈥� Perkins said Tuesday. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a horrible mistake. It鈥檚 a horrible failure of leadership. And, unfortunately, lives were lost. The failure of the system failed the community.鈥�

Holmes, who lived with his mother in the 4500 block of Cote Brilliante Avenue, said he had picked up his 6-year-old daughter from school Friday when his mom asked them to go to the store nearby to pick up some food.

They had heard that it might storm, and it was breezy outside. But there were other people out and other customers at the store, Holmes said.

At the store, he got a text that there was a tornado nearby. As they left, the wind picked up and the sky turned green, and his car started to shake. Then, he saw the tornado ahead. He ran home to find the home collapsed, his mom on the basement stairwell.

It all happened too fast, he said. Shortly afterward, people started to talk 鈥� no one had heard the sirens. But they had heard them a day earlier during a test.

Holmes said he appreciated the city 鈥渙wning up鈥� to the siren failure. But he questions what happens now.

鈥淎t this point, what do families get from this?鈥� Holmes said. 鈥淎re you going to come and apologize to the five families that lost people? Are you going to pay for all their funerals?鈥�