The Emergency Management and Storm Warning Mess in St. Louis Friday, May 16, 2025

[Mike Smith]

This is doubly true if you are talking about major disasters impacting areas of poverty and limited resources like Appalachia and north St. Louis city. But it looks like the kind of help that other places got in the past might not happen in St. Louis, as outlined in the article below. So from how it looks to me, things are getting worse, not better.

John, I have thoughts about what you have written but I fear I would violate the rules about political opinions if I wrote too much.

Please keep in mind that north St. Louis has sunk deeper and deeper into poverty since the 1950's. It was already quite poor when I arrived in STL (Carter Administration) and -- tragically -- it still is. A single political party has ruled STL the entire time.

Trying to blame the STL recovery issues on a president who has been in office 7 months (vs more than 60 years of local single party rule) seems to me to miss the mark. I do strongly support the D. mayor for firing the head of the local EM agency after the terrible siren fiasco and related issues (see the report).

As to NC floods and Katrina, the then and current governor of NC plus the mayor of MSY and governor of LA during Katrina are of the same political party that has ruled STL.

That is all I feel I can say without running afoul of the rules.

 

[John Farley]

John, I have thoughts about what you have written but I fear I would violate the rules about political opinions if I wrote too much.

Please keep in mind that north St. Louis has sunk deeper and deeper into poverty since the 1950's. It was already quite poor when I arrived in STL (Carter Administration) and -- tragically -- it still is. A single political party has ruled STL the entire time.

Trying to blame the STL recovery issues on a president who has been in office 7 months (vs more than 60 years of local single party rule) seems to me to miss the mark. I do strongly support the D. mayor for firing the head of the local EM agency after the terrible siren fiasco and related issues (see the report).

As to NC floods and Katrina, the then and current governor of NC plus the mayor of MSY and governor of LA during Katrina are of the same political party that has ruled STL.

That is all I feel I can say without running afoul of the rules.

I think you missed my point. I am well aware of the history of north St. Louis. It is a truism among disaster researchers that those who are poorest always suffer the worst in natural disasters, and both north St. Louis and Appalachia are good examples of that. (and yes, those are the folks that most need governmental help after a major disaster.) My point in my post was merely that, with the change in administrations and de-funding of FEMA, response to large disasters has not gotten better, and has likely gotten worse. So while local and national political control is often under different parties as you point out, the necessary help from the feds that some other places have gotten has not come through in St. Louis. A prime example is the help that Los Angeles and other places got from the Army Corps of Engineers, as noted in the article I linked. Local and state officials from both political parties have been pushing for that help, and it would make a big difference at least in the cleanup. So far that help has not been forthcoming, hopefully it will in the future but I will believe it when I see it. And while FEMA may have done a lousy job with temporary housing structures in NC, I have not seen any such structures provided in St. Louis. Lots of people are still in tents or houses missing roofs or walls, although more have just simply left. As with you, Mike, there is more I could say but I will not so I do not get on the wrong side of the rules.