St. Louis Tornado Recovery: Demo Continues, Neighborhoods Look Toward Rebuilding
Date Posted: November 3, 2026
Posted In: Discussion, Featured, News,
From St. Louis Public Radio: From Monet Beatty’s back porch on Enright Avenue, the homes across the alleyway almost resemble dominoes. House, empty lot, house, house, empty lots.
The near-century-old brick homes on Kensington Avenue that withstood last year’s tornado are now accompanied by empty lots where neighboring homes once stood.
“It is bittersweet because you look around and it doesn’t look the same as before,” said Monet Beatty from her newly rebuilt back porch.
Last year’s powerful tornado that ripped through the Academy neighborhood and a large portion of the city’s north and west side took her home’s roof and back wall with it.
Beatty and her young daughter, Melani, returned to their home in July after costly repairs to their home. But it’s a neighborhood that Beatty said she struggles to recognize. Where brick homes and trees once stood, there are now shadeless grass lots.
At least 12 homes within 500 feet of theirs either have been demolished or will be eventually, according to the city’s tornado demolition dashboard.
Demolition a Focus
Since the tornado, city officials have made demolishing dangerous, unsalvageable homes a focus in the recovery process.
After a slow start, the city has accelerated the pace at which contracted workers are knocking down unsalvageable homes damaged by the storm. More than 450 homes have been demolished since March, leaving behind grassy lots like the ones that surround Beatty’s home.
They are lots the city wants to fill one day with homes or other development. In the meantime, Beatty and her neighbors worry about what a rebuild of their neighborhood might look like — and whether it will happen at all.
“A hope of mine is that we are living in a period of time where St. Louis doesn’t erase and displace another group of Black neighborhoods that make St. Louis, St. Louis,” said Carroll Lehnhoff-Bell, who lives in a nearby neighborhood but has helped lead a group of volunteers supporting around 35 families in Academy.
Anthony Best, Beatty’s next-door neighbor, works as a contractor. He did much of the repair work on his home himself and moved back in this year.
He said returning home took a lot of work, and all the while he couldn’t help but question whether his labor was worth it at all given the state of the area.