ST. LOUIS, Mo. — At least four people are dead, and the community is picking up the pieces after a tornado ripped through northern and central St. Louis on Friday afternoon.
The tornado appears to have cut a swath across the northwest area of St. Louis.
Damage was being reported from Concordia Seminary and the St. Louis Zoo.
Former Lake area pastor Kris Morris posted on Facebook about being at the St. Louis Zoo when the tornado hit.
Today our family decided to go to the St. Louis zoo between the Theological Diploma service and the graduation ceremony at Concordia Seminary. A tornado decided to pay a visit also. Thankfully, it stayed in the clouds rather than touching down. However, the damage to the zoo and the surrounding area is quite extensive. 30 seconds after I took the video the hail started, the trees began to bend and break, and the heavy doors to the ape house were fluttering like leaves in the wind. As soon as the tornado had passed the St. Louis zoo staff acted professionally, courteously, and with necessary haste to escort all the visitors out of the park. The south exit was completely blocked by fallen trees so they had to route everybody out of the north exit. As you can see in the later photos, a huge Sycamore tree was even covering that entrance, and we had to file out single file around the broken trunk, which was bigger around than me. Thank the Lord for answering our prayers for safety this afternoon!
A video submitted to LakeExpo showed trees down in Forest Park.
The St. Louis Police Department confirmed in a post on X at around 6:15 p.m. that at least four people had died from the storm.
A curfew was put in effect for the northwest quadrant of St. Louis (Districts 5 & 6) on Friday night. The curfew was stated to be in effect from 9 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday.
