With severe weather in the forecast on May 16, Post-Dispatch photographer Laurie Skrivan positioned herself in Kirkwood, waiting. Little did she know, the storm passing over her was about to unleash the worst tornado to hit the city of St. Louis since 1959.
Clouds begin to descend as a severe storm rolls through Kirkwood on May 16, 2025, before heading east to St. Louis and spawning a tornado that caused major damage.
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An employee reacts to damage at Kings Beauty on Friday, May 16, 2025, after a tornado ripped through the business at City Plaza in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis.
Joyce Gardner gets a look at her car, buried underneath bricks from a collapsed business, on May 16, 2025 near North Euclid Avenue and Page Boulevard in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis.
“It sounded like a freight train ... we just prayed and prayed and prayed,†said Lisa Nash, left, owner of Heaven Sent Banquet Hall, who is comforted by Monica Green on May 16, 2025 after a tornado ripped through her business in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis. Nash said she was setting up for a 100-person wedding when she and another employee were trapped inside.
Michelle Higgins and Andrew Gibson embrace outside of Centennial Christian Church in the Fountain Park neighborhood on Friday, May 16, 2025, as they wait for rescuers to reach a woman trapped in the rubble after a tornado ripped through parts of central and north St. Louis. Two women were rescued from the building, but Pat Penelton was later found dead from injuries sustained in the collapse.
Allen Lyles, 60, waits with the body of his wife, Rena Scott-Lyles, after she was killed by a tornado on May 16, 2025 in their house on Bayard Avenue in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis. The couple was running toward the basement when the house collapsed, said Chastidy Henry, Scott-Lyles’ daughter. She said Rena was trapped under a dresser while Allen was blown into a wall. “ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were buried in two different spots, just 5 inches away from each other.â€
Terran Dampier, of the 4800 block of Fountain Ave., in St. Louis, describes her shock after a tornado ripped through the Fountain Park area. “We just bought this house three years ago on the 19th. It was a complete gut rehab.â€Â
(LEFT) Broken tree limbs and debris litter Fountain Park after the tornado came through on May 16, 2025. (RIGHT) The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. statue lies on the ground after being blown off of its pedestal in the park. The statue has since been removed for restoration.
A man who goes by the name “Blue Moon†retrieves items from inside his car that was flipped by the tornado as he tried to escape it on Friday, May 16, 2025, in north St. Louis. “I seen all type of stuff in the air. I whipped a U-turn, then it picked me up and flung me around,†he said as he rooted through the vehicle while blood streamed down his arm.
A man sits among fallen bricks from a nearby home in the 4900 block of Fountain Ave. that lost its entire roof on Friday, May 16, 2025, after a tornado ripped through the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis.
A man bounds through fallen debris on Friday, May 16, 2025, next to the St. Louis Fire Department's Engine House 28, in the 4800 block of Enright Ave. in St. Louis. A storm warning siren is seen at top center. In the days following the tornado, Mayor of St. Louis Cara Spencer said that the siren system didn't properly activate before the tornado.
Zuhdija Omerovic removes fish while it's still fresh, after the roof was ripped off Pops Kingshighway Market by a tornado that hit the Fountain Park area of St. Louis on May 16, 2025.
Benjamin Anderson, center, receives help from his friends Jack Millikan, left, and Izayah Hudnut in removing debris from around a building he owns after a tornado hit the Fountain Park area of St. Louis on May 16, 2025.
"It used to be a three stories. My home is gone," said David Lester, who stands on the second story which now opens to the sky, as he finds an old t-shirt in the rubble on Friday, May 16, 2025, after a tornado ripped through his house along Euclid Avenue in the Fountain Park neighborhood. Lester was not home when the storm hit.
"I have never seen anything like this," said Jerikah McCloud, 23, seen in the destroyed second story of her family home on Kensington Street, in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis, on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
People survey the tornado damage on Enright Avenue in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis, on Saturday, May 17, 2025. The National Weather Service said the tornado was a mile wide at its peak and tracked for nearly 23 miles, producing wind speeds as high as 152 mph.
"My house is just gone and it was beautiful," said Curtis McGrath, who retrieves some personal papers, photos, and clothes from his home of 18 years on Enright Avenue on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis. "This is a photo of my ex-wife and son. I was hoping to find a photo of my mother," said McGrath.
 “There is no way she would have just sat there if she heard that siren,†said Donnie Holmes, who emerged on May 20, 2025 from the basement of the home of his mother, Delois Holmes, after showing a journalist where she was headed for safety. She died when her house on Cote Brillante Avenue collapsed during the May 16 tornado. Donnie’s brother, Reginald Holmes, said he found his mother on the steps to the basement.
See drone footage of tornado damage to the Fountain Place, Academy, DeBaliviere Place, and Central West End neighborhoods of St. Louis, one day after a May 16, 2025 tornado ripped through the region, as seen on May 17, 2025.
John McCloud clears out his his family home on Kensington Street on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in the Academy Neighborhood. McCloud has lived there for 24 years.
Mariyah Guthrie advertises free food, drinks and essentials, alongside her relative Dolly, on May 16, 2025, in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis.
"This is going to bring St. Louis together," said Craig Cole Jr., who visits with his friend Tay, who dropped by to see how he was doing on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis. One day earlier, a tornado completely destroyed Cole's two story duplex on Page Avenue which is reduced to rubble in the background.
“I grew up in this community. People need help and we are helping,†said Cornelius Coleman, who uses a sledge hammer to break apart a tree blocking a resident’s home along Enright Avenue on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis.
Volunteers and community members gather in the Save A Lot parking lot, in the 4400 block of Natural Bridge Road, and sort through toiletries, food and other items on Sunday May 18, 2025. The event was for St. Louis residents affected by the May 16 tornado.
Bernice Collins, 84, is assisted from her vehicle by volunteer Dakolby Crittenden-Brown outside her destroyed home on Elmbank Avenue on Sunday May 18, 2025. Collins was able to start her car after volunteers freed it from tree limbs and debris. Friday's tornado caused severe damage in and around her neighborhood south of Natural Bridge Road at Newstead.
Dex Boston shows photos to his fiancée, Tirzah Russell, that he salvaged from the rubble of her grandmother’s home on May 18, 2025 on Newstead Avenue in the Greater Ville area of St. Louis. The May 16 tornado completely collapsed the home with three people inside. All were rescued by neighbors and were largely unhurt. Russell is holding her 9-month-old daughter, Ren.Â
"I just gotta keep moving," says Timothy Taylor as he cleans up debris outside the house his family has lived in for 90 years in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis on Thursday, May 22, 2025. Taylor was in the home when the May 16 tornado came through, helping his mother and other family members to the basement when he saw the storm picking up strength.
Broken shards of stained glass windows that hung in Pilgrim Congregational Church lie scattered over a church program on May 19 in the stairwell of the building in the Visitation Park area of St. Louis. The Rev. Kevin Anthony, pastor, said the congregation likely won’t be able to afford to repair the stained glass windows. Instead, church members are focusing on using the shards to create a memorial art installation at the church and prioritizing needed roof repairs.
A broken cross sits atop of Pilgrim Congregational Church after the May 16 tornado caused damage throughout the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis, as seen on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
“I am just so sad. I am so emotional. This park is like a home to me,†said Christie Ferguson, of St. Louis, who breaks down after seeing the devastation left by the tornado as she rides her bike on May 23, 2025 in Forest Park. “To me it symbolizes what’s happening in the world. Everything is going away.â€
Eloise Schlafly takes an evening stroll with her husband, Alex Brohammer, on Westminster Place at Union Boulevard on May 21, 2025 in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis. A May 16 tornado ripped through the neighborhood, damaging homes and uprooting trees and sidewalks.
Darnell “HardTimez†Forest waits for volunteers to tarp off the roof and front of his damaged home. “I’ll sit here until dark then I get the flashlights out,†said Forest on May 18, 2025, who has been living in his damaged home since the tornado. Forest has little money, no insurance, and is concerned about looting. He was one of many people who refused to leave his home of 34 years which he slowly paid people to piece back together in the coming months.
“Is this the house I used to play in when I was little?†asks Danielle Austin, as she pulls out her aunt’s dress while digging through the rubble of her uncle Norbert Thompson’s collapsed two-story house on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in the Kingsway East neighborhood of St. Louis. The home has been in the family for three generations, but Thompson (above, with his dog Oreo) does not have insurance on it.
Residents struggle with their emotions as they face their uncertain future. "I don't want to be a burden to anyone," said homeowner Arletta Bonds, who breaks down after getting some fried rice from a pastor doing outreach on May 22, 2025, outside her destroyed home. Bonds, is determined to rebuild and stay in the neighborhood, even if it calls for her to live in a tent or in a tiny house. "This is my home," she said, "I will rebuild." She is currently staying with her daughter.
(TOP) Siblings Aaliyah, 22, Ethan, 13, and Samantha Williams, 14, prepare for bedtime in their parents’ car outside their tornado-damaged home on May 22, 2025 in the Greater Ville neighborhood of St. Louis. The children are part of a 14-person family that has been without power since a tornado tore their roof clean off, and their parents don’t have home insurance. The family members have been sleeping in the family car, on cots, on the floor of the house’s main level (LEFT), and the cab of their dad’s long-haul truck (RIGHT). They are extra worried that their home will eventually be condemned after their house received a red sticker saying it is not livable.Â
"This is the first time I have ever tried to grill pizza rolls," said Gregory Williams, who fires up the grill in front of his tornado-damaged house on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in the Greater Ville neighborhood of St. Louis. He is part of a 14-person-family that has been without power since a tornado tore their roof clean off, and his parents don't have home insurance.Â
Outreach workers with Leonard Baptist Church Keith Phillips, far right, and Fatima Myles, far left, watch as 2-year-old Ava, front right, reaches out for a hot meal outside Myles’ sister’s home on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in the Greater Ville neighborhood of St. Louis. After Myles’ home was destroyed in the May 16 tornado, one of her children’s daycares put them up in a hotel for a week because the family does not have homeowners insurance.
“We are just still processing everything. I inherited this house three months ago from my dad and I don’t have insurance yet,†said Fatima Myles, who walks through what’s left of the home with her fiance, Allen Franklin, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in the Greater Ville neighborhood of St. Louis. “As soon as I made it to the basement, the house was gone,†said Franklin, staring down at the basement where he survived the storm. Myles’ father bought the house in 2018 from the city’s land bank for $200 and began renovating it.
“I did everything right. I never missed a payment,†said Betty Mitchell, center, who prays with Pastor Pamela Paul, left, and her daughter Stephanie Brooks on Thursday, May 22, 2025, outside Mitchell’s tornado-damaged home in the Greater Ville neighborhood. Mitchell said that when she finished paying off her mortgage a few years ago, her coverage lapsed because she didn’t realize she was no longer paying her insurance bill. But then, she also learned she couldn’t afford the higher rates.
Jimmie Robinson removes debris from his aunt’s tornado-damaged house on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in the Greater Ville neighborhood of St. Louis. His aunt, Climmie Robinson Lawuary, said she has lived in the home on and off for 30 years, but she has no homeowners insurance. “Reality is setting in. I don’t know what lies ahead,†Lawuary said.
"I feel so blessed with so many people coming out to help me," said Darnell "HardTimez" Forest, as his friends place a tarp on the front of his home on Sunday, May 18, 2025, in the 4500 block of Cottage Avenue. Forest does not have money or insurance and feels he has no choice but to stay in his home.
 "I'm not going anywhere," says Gwen Hudgins, who retrieves shoes from the trunk of one of her vehicles on Friday, May 23, 2025, as she settles in to sleep near her collapsed house in the 3000 block of North Newstead Avenue in the Greater Ville area of St. Louis. She and her son Wayne had been sleeping in cars since the tornado; but now they live in tents on the property and store their clothes in the cars. She owns several adjacent lots, all acquired from St. Louis' land bank over the years.
Gwen Hudgins gives an item to her son, Wayne Hudgins, from a supply of donations she keeps in a rented van on Friday, May 23, 2025, next to her collapsed house on North Newstead Avenue in St. Louis.
Gwen Hudgins sweeps up residual debris in front of her collapsed home on North Newstead on Friday, May 23, 2025, as dusk falls.
(LEFT) A volunteer asks tornado victim Gwen Hudgins about her clothes size as Hudgins settles into a new tent donated and raised by volunteers. (RIGHT) Theresa Gibson, center, and Patricia Sawyer, volunteers with First Student bus transportation company, stop to take Gwen Hudgins’ blood pressure on May 23, 2025, outside Hudgins collapsed house.
“I told my mother I was gonna do this,†says Wayne Hudgins, who secures an American flag on the highest point of the collapsed home he shared with his mother, Gwen Hudgins, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, on North Newstead Avenue in the Greater Ville area of St. Louis. “It’s been a little bit better by the day,†he said of living outdoors since the tornado. “But not that good.â€
“I don’t really have a plan. I just lost my job, too,†says Terri Owen, who sits on the porch of her four-family flat in The Greater Ville neighborhood on Thursday, May 22, 2025, after red stickers were put on the doors saying, “Danger. Entry prohibited. Violators subject to prosecution.â€
An inspector affixes a red tag stating that a property hit by the May 16, 2025, tornado is unsafe to enter, in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis on Thursday, May 22, 2025. The inspector from University City was one of several volunteering with the Missouri Structural and Visual Evaluation (SAVE) Coalition to determine the structural integrity of homes in the neighborhood after the storm.
A red tag prohibiting entry to a property is placed on the rubble of a home hit by the May 16, 2025 tornado in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis on Thursday, May 22, 2025. Three inspectors from University City were volunteering with the Missouri Structural and Visual Evaluation (SAVE) Coalition to determine the structural integrity of homes in the neighborhood after the storm.
Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard addresses residents' concerns over the use of eminent domain to take their tornado-damaged properties, during a Fountain Park-Lewis Place neighborhood meeting that was held in Fountain Park on Saturday, May 24, 2025. The group's usual meeting spot at West Side Missionary Baptist Church was not an option because of tornado damage. The residents questioned when state and federal help would arrive, citing their concerns they would be forgotten because they live north of the Delmar Divide.
Nicole, a resident of the tornado-damaged area, finds clothing for her siblings and mother on Friday, May 23, 2025, in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis. Her mother Lisa Owens was renting to own the home that was declared unsafe to live in, displacing everyone. Iesha King, who grew up the area and now lives in Clayton, has been coming down for days and hanging out clothes from her closet to offer to those affected by the tornado damage.
Janese C. Banks gets a massage from Hattie Svoboda, a licensed massage therapist volunteering with the Bullet Recovery Injury Clinic, at their wellness tent in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis on May 23, 2025. Banks, a resident of The Ville, lost power to her home for a few days and a fallen tree was in her front yard after damage caused by the May 16, 2025, tornado.
Hundreds of volunteers prepare items for the Urban League’s large-scale distribution of food, toiletries and resources drive on May 24 at the organization’s headquarters in Fountain Park.
Princezetta Washington, center, whistles while her daughter Brandi Smith waves toward Ameren and other utility trucks driving past on May 24, 2025 along Natural Bridge Avenue in St. Louis. The family was finishing up an afternoon of passing out sandwiches and small bags of basic necessities to anyone who needed them.
"I don't know whether to laugh or cry," said homeowner Osirus Willis, who walks through her heavily damaged house with volunteer Bradley Tuttle on Sunday, May 25, 2025, on Ashland in the Greater Ville neighborhood. Willis is trying to resolved an insurance issue that has her listed as a renter rather than as a homeowner.
Volunteers steady Charles Culton, 9, as he helps unload a delivery truck of donations from Manos Unidas STL on May 25, 2025 in the Save A Lot parking lot in the Penrose neighborhood of St. Louis. The parking lot has become a grass-roots community hub for free food, water, toiletries and clothing ever since a tornado hit the neighborhood.
“I am blessed to have a community that takes care of me,†said Ashley Asaro, center, who peruses the shoes as other residents pick up toiletries at a pop-up clothing donation for residents affected by the tornado on May 24, 2025 on a former used auto lot in the Greater Ville neighborhood. “I feel this was the best way I could help,†said fashion designer Rayven Stokes, far left, who wanted to give back after her grandmother’s home of 40 years was heavily damaged by the tornado. “You don’t have to look like what you are going through,†she said.
A torn City of St. Louis flag flies over damage and debris from the May 16, 2025, tornado on Kingsbury Place in the DeBaliviere Place neighborhood on May 22, 2025.
In this Series
Catch up on Post-Dispatch coverage of the May 16 tornado
Christian Gooden | Post-Dispatch
Photographer
Michael Hamtil | Post-Dispatch
Multimedia Director
Allie Schallert | Post-Dispatch
Videographer/Photographer
Laurie Skrivan | Post-Dispatch
Photographer
