“Get In Where
You Fit In”

Kenneth Petty was sitting with his dog on his back porch in north St. Louis when the sky went dark. What had been a sunny afternoon minutes before quickly turned into a nightmare.

“It turned black outta nowhere,” Petty recalls. “A gust of wind hit me and my dog all of a sudden. And I looked at my dog, and my dog looked at me, and we both ran in the house. If I wouldn’t have, within like two seconds or so, I don’t think I would’ve been able to close my back door.”

As Petty and his dog made it to safety in the basement, an EF3 tornado was tearing through the St. Louis area, developing in Clayton and continuing for 23 miles, crossing the Mississippi River and unwinding near Edwardsville, Illinois. The damage was swift and devastating, and claimed the lives of five people.

Petty and his wife, Janice, and their dog survived the storm without injury, but their home in the O’Fallon neighborhood sustained damage – although Petty is quick to say it’s nowhere near as bad as what some of his neighbors experienced. 

“When I opened my back door again, I was in a state of shock at how it looked out here,” Petty says. “It was a shock. This is going to be affected for years.”

“We Care About the City”

On Friday, May 16, in the hours after the tornado dissipated, community organizers, volunteers, and residents were already working hard to help people in its path, especially in historically underserved communities in north and west St. Louis, where some of the worst damage occurred.

“When we started on Friday, we were literally just a small group of 10 at this parking lot trying to gather resources,” says Ohun Ashe, founder of ForTheCultureSTL. “And the next day it completely shifted and we had to move things around ’cause it was starting to grow. And now it has grown beyond my imagination.”

Ashe, working alongside Kayla Reed, co-founder and executive director of Action St. Louis, as well as 4theVille, Invest STL, and a team of volunteers, has been growing that rapid response effort every day since. Now organized under the name The People’s Response, the collective meets daily at the O’Fallon Park Recreation Center YMCA. In addition to collecting and distributing free vital resources including non-perishable food, water, hygiene products, flashlights and light sources, diapers and baby wipes, household needs, and more, The People’s Response sends teams of volunteers to help clear debris and clean up nearby homes and neighborhoods damaged by the tornado.

“This is completely powered by volunteers today,” Reed says. “We’ve already passed over 300 volunteers who’ve shown up (today), and we’re just shy of 11 a.m. More than half of them go out into the community, and the other half are here sorting, bagging. They’ve helped build systems, they lead systems, so there’s a real community to plug into.” 

A week after the tornado, on a sunny Friday morning, the number of volunteers continues to grow throughout the day. People of all ages and backgrounds work together under an array of pop-up tents and in smaller groups across the grounds. Under a pop-up tent where batteries, flashlights, and other light sources are being organized and packaged up, a young boy helps his parents sort flashlights, his mother carrying his little sister in a baby carrier. 

At another tent, containers of soap, sunscreen, shampoo, conditioner, and other essentials are sorted by staff members of The People’s Response. They’re clad in matching black T-shirts, making it easy for volunteers to identify them and ask questions or for help, when needed. Across the back, the shirts capture the heart of The People’s Response: “self-determined, self-deployed.”

To ferry bulk items like toilet paper or diapers from one location to another on-site, lines of volunteers pass items down the chain, one by one, working together. 

“Giving our time is the most important thing that we can do — time is precious. And now’s the time,” says volunteer Keisha Mabry Haymore, founder and owner of Heydays in the Midtown neighborhood, as she passes an item down the line. “It’s unfortunate that the people have to respond, but the fact that the community has shown up in this way is crazy beautiful.”

In a grassy area nearby, a group of volunteers sort donated sheets of plywood and lumber to help mend damaged homes as best as possible. Among them is Ricky Hughes, founder of St. Louis Run Crew, who has spent the past few days volunteering with The People’s Response.

“I just love St. Louis, and I can’t imagine actually experiencing this (devastation) directly — like losing my home,” Hughes says. “My heart and my love and my energy is going out to them. I couldn’t be doing anything else right now. I just had to be here. I love St. Louis and St. Louis needs to know that people care about them. And a lot of people care about the people in St. Louis, especially on the north and the west side. We care about the city.”

In addition to the relief hub at the O’Fallon Park YMCA, 4theVille is also hosting an emergency center at 4144 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Currently, The People’s Response plans to maintain the two relief hubs through Saturday, May 31. Moving forward, the collective has announced plans to work with other regional partners to continue supporting the recovery and rebuilding of North City. For those who can’t volunteer, The People’s Response has a drive-up donation line at the O’Fallon Park YMCA, and also accepts donations online.

“We want to extend deep gratitude to all the folks who have come through here,” Reed says. “I wish I had enough time to shake everybody’s hand who has come through, but we’re deeply grateful. This has been the biggest volunteer operation post-tornado, and I think the volunteers feel really proud of that, our staff feel really proud of that, our partner organizations feel really proud of that. And we’re gonna continue for as long as there’s a need, even if we’re not in the physical hub form. The People’s Response work will continue to ensure that residents in North City are made whole.”

“Moving as One”

Kevin Jackson of Maryland Heights has been grilling hot dogs at the intersection of West Florissant and Red Bud avenues for a week, arriving in the wake of the tornado. He hasn’t been home since, favoring naps in his truck over driving home. He made a promise to stay on West Florissant until power is restored to all of the homes in the neighborhood.

“It’s been a joyous thing since I’ve landed here,” Jackson says of the spot where he set up his grill, which has since grown to include a pop-up tent and additional free supplies for neighbors. “I was here at about 10 on Saturday night, and a family came walking down the street. A lady walked up to me and said, ‘Thank you so much, because at nighttime, you have nobody.’ And I vowed to be here until the lights are on so you have somebody, and I’ve been here ever since.”

Much like Jackson, Rung For Women CEO Leslie Gill wanted to help, so she and her team assembled a group and jumped in where they saw a need. They ended up setting up near West Florissant and Fair avenues, with a group led by St. Louis artist and actor Sequoi Edwards.

“We actually walked from the YMCA up West Florissant, just stopping at every corner to say, ‘Where can we help?’ So just trying to do our part,” Gill says. “The more hands the better. There’s a lot to do, a lot to sort, and we want to get it to the people who need it the most. Go door to door, ask people if they need things. Just show up and get in where you fit in.”

Going door to door and asking residents if they needed help is exactly how nurse practitioner Laconte Randle of St. Charles spent Friday afternoon.

“A lot of people cannot get out, cannot get certain things, and I just wanna make sure that their blood pressure is taken care of, their vital signs are good,” Randle says. “You’re gonna have a lot of people with high anxiety. This is what I do — this is why you become a nurse, because you want to help.”

Pulling a bright blue wagon filled with personal hygiene items, a cooler of water and Gatorade, and medical equipment such as a stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff, and a fingertip pulse oximeter, Randle spent her day off checking in on residents.

“I grew up down here, so to walk through and see this is devastating,” Randle says. “And it’s never enough hands on board, never enough. You do what God calls you to do. All of that will come back tenfold.”

Nearby, at the intersection of West Florissant and Harris avenues, Fallon Artis stands outside her snack shop, Lanett Good Eats. The store lost its roof and sustained heavy damage during the tornado and storm, and the rain that followed in the week after made a bad situation worse. Instead of discarding her inventory, Artis is giving it away for free to her neighbors. “Before I take a loss, I’d rather just give it away,” Artis says. “Maybe if and when we do come back, the same people that we’re giving to can come back and patronize with us.”

Folding tables set up in front of Lanett Good Eats are stocked with water, food, books, and more, and Artis has been grilling food — today it’s chicken wings and burgers — to share with anyone in the community who wants to stop by. A week after the tornado, the block is extra busy, as Artis hosts students from Leonard’s Barber College in the Kingsway East neighborhood, who are offering free haircuts to folks in the community.

“It is actually heartwarming just to see that so many people can come together no matter what the history or the differences are — we’re just moving as one, one movement,” Artis says. “It’s a beautiful thing.”