Stronger than the Storm: Investing in Missouri’s Health
By Jasmine Hall Ratliff
Early afternoon on Friday, May 16, an EF3 tornado tore through Greater St. Louis, tracking more than 20 miles. Roofs were ripped off. Entire blocks were transformed in minutes. FEMA has called the residential damage the largest they’ve surveyed since the 2011 tornado in Joplin.
Seeing the devastation firsthand, trees uprooted, families displaced was surreal and felt like a wake-up call we didn’t ask for. My father-in-law’s church was hit. The irreparable damage to that building—the place where his father’s name is on a plaque over the entry door, where families have gathered for decades—brought the disaster even closer to home.
Today, more than four months later, folks’ physical injuries may have healed, but they’re still living in their cars. They’re still trying to figure out what’s next. And that stress? It doesn’t just disappear. It shows up later as illness.
That’s the thing I want people to understand: tornadoes aren’t only about broken windows and downed power lines. Just like floods aren’t only about wet carpet and drowned crops, or heat waves about a few uncomfortable days. These extreme weather events break systems: health systems, housing systems, community support systems. And those breaks are deepest where communities were already stretched thin.
And recent history tells us recovery isn’t quick. In Bollinger County, Missouri, survivors of the 2023 tornado said they were still waiting for promised aid a year later. Donated funds sat tied up in a bank account while families struggled. Inequitable, outdated systems that bump along in normal times can completely implode during extreme weather crises. Here in St. Louis it is sinking in just how long it will take for some neighborhoods to rebuild and recover.
Even beyond housing issues, the health toll is heavy. When you lose tree cover, the neighborhood doesn’t just look different—it feels different. It’s hotter, harder to breathe. People stay indoors more, which means less activity, less connection. St. Louis is already vulnerable to heat; just last June we hit 103 degrees, which was the hottest temperature ever recorded here on that date. First responders were overwhelmed with heat-related calls. Nonprofits scrambled to deliver free air conditioners and smart thermostats just to help folks survive the week. And we know that’s not an outlier anymore. Extreme heat is already the deadliest weather hazard in the U.S., and it’s growing here in Missouri.
And then there are the storms themselves. In 2022, a record-breaking downpour dropped more than nine inches of rain on St. Louis in a single day. Highways turned to rivers. Damages topped a billion dollars. Scientists now say storms like that, once considered “1-in-1000-year” events, are becoming two to four times more likely in the future.
That might look like planning for rebuilds that add energy-efficient appliances or replace old windows with ones that keep homes cooler in summer. Or choosing materials that stand up better to future storms. Each of those steps can make daily life safer and healthier—lowering energy bills, improving air quality, and keeping families safe and comfortable during the next weather event.
We’ve seen examples in other parts of the country where green jobs and resilient housing models don’t just repair what was lost, they improve health outcomes. From retrofitting existing housing for climate resilience in Washington, DC, to reducing energy costs while providing for increased participation in city infrastructure projects by disadvantaged companies in New Orleans,LA, communities across the nation are exploring partnerships and opportunities to protect health and wellbeing in the face of extreme weather. Missouri communities deserve that kind of vision, too.
At Build Missouri Health, we believe the best solutions come from the ground up. That’s why fiscal sponsorship is so central to our work. It gives grassroots groups the structure they need to launch quickly, raise funds, and focus on serving their communities, without being buried in red tape.
After the May 16th storm, our fiscally sponsored partner 314Oasis stepped up in the hardest hit neighborhoods of North St. Louis, showing up daily at Fountain Park and Centennial Church to offer food, water, mental health support, legal help, cooling relief, and just a safe place for neighbors to gather. They’re a community-rooted organization doing the work that national groups often can’t. Our role is to lift them up, support them, and clear the path so they can do what they do best.
And we’re not just thinking about this moment. We’re investing in a resilient, health-minded future through our Youth Climate Leaders program—preparing young people across Missouri to tackle the intersection of climate and health head-on. Young leaders will learn skills to help them identify and address climate issues in their own communities. Because resilience isn’t only about structures. It’s about people. And the next generation needs to be ready.
But we can be. If we stop treating extreme weather as rare accidents and start treating them as the health crises they are. If we invest in communities before disaster strikes. If we make resilience—not just recovery—the goal.
Climate resilience is public health. And public health begins in communities.
If you’d like more information about how your organization or collaborative can become a fiscally sponsored partner, or how your community can begin identifying climate resilience issues and solutions, please reach out to me at jhratliff@buildmmohealth.org.
Working together, we can build a more resilient Missouri.
Seeing the devastation firsthand, trees uprooted, families displaced was surreal and felt like a wake-up call we didn’t ask for. My father-in-law’s church was hit. The irreparable damage to that building—the place where his father’s name is on a plaque over the entry door, where families have gathered for decades—brought the disaster even closer to home.
Today, more than four months later, folks’ physical injuries may have healed, but they’re still living in their cars. They’re still trying to figure out what’s next. And that stress? It doesn’t just disappear. It shows up later as illness.
That’s the thing I want people to understand: tornadoes aren’t only about broken windows and downed power lines. Just like floods aren’t only about wet carpet and drowned crops, or heat waves about a few uncomfortable days. These extreme weather events break systems: health systems, housing systems, community support systems. And those breaks are deepest where communities were already stretched thin.
The health impacts you don’t always see
In North St. Louis, the storm widened disparities that were already there. Families with fewer resources are the ones still waiting on home repairs, paying more than they can afford for temporary housing, or trying to keep their kids in the same schools while their neighborhoods are shells of what they once were.And recent history tells us recovery isn’t quick. In Bollinger County, Missouri, survivors of the 2023 tornado said they were still waiting for promised aid a year later. Donated funds sat tied up in a bank account while families struggled. Inequitable, outdated systems that bump along in normal times can completely implode during extreme weather crises. Here in St. Louis it is sinking in just how long it will take for some neighborhoods to rebuild and recover.
Even beyond housing issues, the health toll is heavy. When you lose tree cover, the neighborhood doesn’t just look different—it feels different. It’s hotter, harder to breathe. People stay indoors more, which means less activity, less connection. St. Louis is already vulnerable to heat; just last June we hit 103 degrees, which was the hottest temperature ever recorded here on that date. First responders were overwhelmed with heat-related calls. Nonprofits scrambled to deliver free air conditioners and smart thermostats just to help folks survive the week. And we know that’s not an outlier anymore. Extreme heat is already the deadliest weather hazard in the U.S., and it’s growing here in Missouri.
And then there are the storms themselves. In 2022, a record-breaking downpour dropped more than nine inches of rain on St. Louis in a single day. Highways turned to rivers. Damages topped a billion dollars. Scientists now say storms like that, once considered “1-in-1000-year” events, are becoming two to four times more likely in the future.
Rebuilding with health in mind
As we come together to help those hardest hit by the May tornado, let’s agree that recovery should be about more than putting things back the way they were. Every disaster is a chance to rebuild in ways that actually improve health and resilience.That might look like planning for rebuilds that add energy-efficient appliances or replace old windows with ones that keep homes cooler in summer. Or choosing materials that stand up better to future storms. Each of those steps can make daily life safer and healthier—lowering energy bills, improving air quality, and keeping families safe and comfortable during the next weather event.
We’ve seen examples in other parts of the country where green jobs and resilient housing models don’t just repair what was lost, they improve health outcomes. From retrofitting existing housing for climate resilience in Washington, DC, to reducing energy costs while providing for increased participation in city infrastructure projects by disadvantaged companies in New Orleans,LA, communities across the nation are exploring partnerships and opportunities to protect health and wellbeing in the face of extreme weather. Missouri communities deserve that kind of vision, too.
At Build Missouri Health, we believe the best solutions come from the ground up. That’s why fiscal sponsorship is so central to our work. It gives grassroots groups the structure they need to launch quickly, raise funds, and focus on serving their communities, without being buried in red tape.
After the May 16th storm, our fiscally sponsored partner 314Oasis stepped up in the hardest hit neighborhoods of North St. Louis, showing up daily at Fountain Park and Centennial Church to offer food, water, mental health support, legal help, cooling relief, and just a safe place for neighbors to gather. They’re a community-rooted organization doing the work that national groups often can’t. Our role is to lift them up, support them, and clear the path so they can do what they do best.
And we’re not just thinking about this moment. We’re investing in a resilient, health-minded future through our Youth Climate Leaders program—preparing young people across Missouri to tackle the intersection of climate and health head-on. Young leaders will learn skills to help them identify and address climate issues in their own communities. Because resilience isn’t only about structures. It’s about people. And the next generation needs to be ready.
Resilience is health
Here’s what I know: this isn’t the last storm. It’s going to keep happening. It’s going to get worse. Missouri is not prepared. Not yet.But we can be. If we stop treating extreme weather as rare accidents and start treating them as the health crises they are. If we invest in communities before disaster strikes. If we make resilience—not just recovery—the goal.
Climate resilience is public health. And public health begins in communities.
If you’d like more information about how your organization or collaborative can become a fiscally sponsored partner, or how your community can begin identifying climate resilience issues and solutions, please reach out to me at jhratliff@buildmmohealth.org.
Working together, we can build a more resilient Missouri.