The head of the City Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) in St. Louis has been suspended pending an investigation into into why tornado sirens did not sound before an EF-3 tornado hit parts of Central West End and North City last week. A physical button must be pushed by officials at the CEMA office in order to activate warning sirens; this was never done. Five people died when the storm struck.
Sarah Russell, (a biological woman) who identifies as transgender and goes by they/them pronouns, was promoted to the CEMA leadership position in 2022 in the midst of the widespread DEI hiring blitz within Democrat run cities across the US. CEMA is a local partner organization to FEMA.
CEMA staff, including Russell, were at a workshop on Market Street and not at the CEMA office located on Olive, where the siren activation button is located. The Mayor's office said Russell contacted the fire department, apparently at the time the tornado was approaching the city. City officials say there was then a breakdown in communication, with the directive to activate the sirens being vague.
Why didn't Russel go to the office to set off the alarm herself? This is not known but the two locations are approximately four blocks away - A very short distance.
In April of 2024, Russell's office received a $3.9 million grant to improve the siren system in St. Louis which she said needed to be updated. This included adding multiple languages to alarm PSAs, such as Spanish, Vietnamese, Hindi, Swahili, Bosnian and Dari/Patscho. However, no amount of siren improvements will matter if no one is there to push the button.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer has placed Sarah Russell on leave, stating at a press conference:
“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..."
The investigation will look into why the CEMA staff, including Russell, were not in the office when the storms were anticipated. CEMA will be temporarily led by St. Louis Fire Department Capt. John Walk until a permanent replacement is found.
The event strikes up yet another debate on the dangers of DEI hiring and the promotion of people based on identity instead of merit and intelligence. As witnessed in cities like LA during the Palisades fires, DEI employees are like time bombs waiting to go off in communities across the country. Everything is fine as long as nothing goes wrong, but one crisis event exposes an avalanche of incompetence among DEI managers.