On Friday, May 16, a massive EF3 tornado tore through the St. Louis area, leaving a path of devastation almost 23 miles long.
Five people died.
During the storms, the city's tornado sirens failed to sound and residents lost a valuable warning that could have saved lives.
Now the CEMA Commissioner, Sarah Russell, has been put on paid leave pending an investigation.
There is a system of 60 outdoor sirens stationed around St. Louis, which are meant to be activated once the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning for the area as it did on Friday. There are two places where they can be activated: the CEMA office and the Fire Department.
According to Spencer's office, which announced Russell's leave Tuesday, the commissioner was attending an offsite workshop with other emergency management staff when the tornado warning came down, and that prevented them from activating the sirens from their agency's main building, about a half mile away.
Russell instead contacted the Fire Department to activate the sirens, but the directive was ambiguous, the mayor said. Her office released the recording of Russell's call to the department, in which she confirms they are aware of the NWS warning and briefly clarifies the timing of it before saying, 'OK, you got the sirens?' The person at the fire department replies 'Yes, ma'am,' and the call ends.
'The direction was not clear,' Spencer said at a news conference Wednesday morning about the phone call. Russel did not clearly direct the person at the Fire Department to press the button to activate the sirens, she said, adding, 'It's my understanding that the button was not pushed.'
Clear, effective communication is essential in emergency management response. If you've ever taken a CPR class, one of the things you learn is to physically point to someone and tell that one person 'Call 911' or 'Get the AED' because if you give a vague 'Someone call 911!' most people will just assume someone else will do it.
It does.
The CBS story doesn't elaborate on the workshop, but we'd love to know if this is true.
Only government employees get paid leave when they make deadly mistakes at work.
YUP.
Fair question.
We're glad you're okay.
Yes, it does.
One job.
Because a clear directive wasn't given by Russell.
And they want DEI in every facet of public life, including healthcare.
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