ST. LOUIS—On the same day the St. Louis Board of Aldermen introduced legislation to create a Tornado Relief and Recovery Fund to address needs stemming from last month’s deadly twister that swept through the St. Louis region, there were fresh calls for more urgency directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under the bill brought to the floor Friday, the fund will be seeded with $30 million from interest on the city’s NFL settlement and could grow with its own interest and deposits from other funding sources.

Money in the fund would focus on preventing homelessness and displacement caused by the storm through stabilization of homes, with a priority for those that were uninsured or underinsured. The first millon dollars distributed from the fund will address resettling impacted residents in the city.

City officials are still working through the mechanics of how victims will apply for the funds and how they would be distributed.

If the bill is approved out of a legislative committee next week and is perfected by the Board next Friday, it could see final passage in a special board meeting June 17.

Next week, the Missouri House returns to Jefferson City to take up legislation in an extraordinary session that would make St. Louis eligible for $100 million in state aid for tornado relief, and part of a $25 million appropriation for tornado victims statewide this year.

Despite the signs of assistance at the local and state level, Mayor Cara Spencer said she was “overwhelmingly frustrated” with the lack of movement from FEMA, where the state’s disaster request remains as of Friday and hasn’t been sent to the White House, despite a pledge to U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on May 20 to expedite the request. 

“After a thorough assessment, FEMA will approve a disaster declaration request if the assessment shows the event’s damage exceeds the state, local governments,and voluntary organizations’ capacity to respond. Just like all declaration requests, this decision is based on policy, not politics,” a FEMA spokesperson told Spectrum News Friday.

“No city can shoulder this alone. It is impossible. That is what the federal government is for, that is what FEMA is for. Cities across the United States should be looking at us right now and seeing their own future if we cannot activate emergency response at the federal level to support communities in their times of most need,” Spencer said. The reliance on other partners “is not a sustainable solution,” she added. This is a disaster.”

“Historically it has been the role of FEMA to step and to help folks who are uninsured and underinsured after a disaster like this,” said board president Megan Green. “We saw that during Katrina, we’ve seen that during other hurricanes that hit Florida and that is a big reason that we need FEMA in here.”

Hawley told Spectrum News on Thursday that FEMA is a “mess” and that “significant overhauls” may be necessary.

“Every day that goes by where they don't expedite our disaster request, where they're not getting us the relief that we need, when they're not getting our request in front of the president in a timely fashion, tells me that there needs to be major reform at this agency,” Hawley said.