Devastating tornados rolled through Missouri last week, in which five people were killed, and the DEI Commissioner of the City Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) and her staff were at a workshop, and failed to activate the tornado sirens.
This DEI hire, who uses They/Them pronouns, has now been placed on leave by the mayor.
Here’s more from Fox St Louis:
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer has placed Sarah Russell, the Commissioner of the City Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), on leave following a failure of the city’s tornado sirens during last week’s deadly storm.
The decision to put Russell on paid administrative leave comes as an internal investigation is launched into the actions of her office on the day of the tornado. The sirens, which are crucial for alerting residents to severe weather, did not sound as a tornado caused major damage in parts of St. Louis.
“Let me be clear: CEMA exists to alert the community when severe weather is coming. This office failed to do that in the most horrific and deadly storm that our city has experienced in my lifetime,” Spencer said at a press conference.
The investigation looks into why the CEMA staff, including Russell, were not in the office during the anticipated storms. Instead, they were attending a workshop at another downtown location, which left them unable to activate the sirens from the office.
Russell contacted the fire department to activate the sirens, but unclear communication led to nobody sounding the sirens. Mayor Spencer’s office released audio of the call between Russell and a fire department dispatcher, highlighting the ambiguity in the directive to activate the sirens.
Additionally, upon investigating, the button to sound sirens at the fire department was not working as expected during Tuesday’s testing. Spencer noted that there will be an additional external investigation.
Beginning Wednesday night, CEMA will be temporarily led by St. Louis Fire Department Capt. John Walk until a permanent replacement is found.
Libs of Tiktok also posted this communication from Russell’s office:
This is why DEI is so dangerous. They put people who aren’t competent in such crucial jobs, and then this happens.