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ӣ����Ƶ has been hit before

2:50 p.m. ӣ����Ƶ has been hit by several deadly tornadoes; the most notable was May 27, 1896, when 255 people were killed in a tornado that moved though ӣ����Ƶ and into East ӣ����Ƶ. That storm destroyed buildings in Lafayette Square and parts of Soulard. This tornado is the deadliest that hit ӣ����Ƶ.

But the second- and third-deadliest tornadoes both took a path that included parts of north ӣ����Ƶ.

A Sept. 29, 1927, tornado killed 78 people along a seven-mile path. It first touched down near Manchester and Kingshighway, then moved through Westminster Place, Page Boulevard and Cote Brilliante. Five students at Central High School, North Grand Boulevard and Finney Avenue, were killed.��

A Feb. 9, 1959, tornado killed 21 people. In a three-story home at Delmar Boulevard and Whittier Street, eight people were killed. The storm also tore the roof off the Arena south of Forest Park and toppled a TV tower at Hampton and Oakland avenues.��

More recent tornadoes in the city caused injuries, but no deaths.

Weather service declares storm a tornado

2:30 p.m.: The National Weather Service confirmed Saturday afternoon that a tornado hit ӣ����Ƶ on Friday.

Preliminary reporting rates the tornado at EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds between 136-165 miles per hour, said NWS meteorologist Patrick Walsh.

A survey of the damage, which stretches from Clayton and Forest Park to the O’Fallon Park area in north ӣ����Ƶ, remains ongoing.

Zoo's butterfly dome damaged

12:45 p.m.: The ӣ����Ƶ Zoo will stay closed another day, officials said on Saturday.

The storm caused millions of dollars worth of damage there, zoo Director Michael Macek estimated.

Hundreds of trees and thousands of large branches broke. Some displays were damaged and light posts toppled.

Branches of a large tree near the butterfly dome fell and broke several of the dome’s acrylic panels. Macek said he did not know how many butterflies escaped but said Missouri Botanical Garden is housing the rest.

The zoo will lose about $300,000 each day it’s had to close, Macek said. During a weekend with nice weather, like this one, the zoo would expect about 25,000 people per day.

“We’re getting open as soon as we possibly can,” Macek said.

Right now, it’s all hands on deck, he said. About 100 workers were inside the zoo on Saturday sawing branches and clearing debris.

No animals or guests were injured at the time of the storm. About 10,000 people were at the zoo at the time.

Guests huddled inside buildings and were evacuated about 30 minutes later.

“It came through very, very quickly,” Macek said.

Annie Malone parade canceled

11:45 a.m.: Annie Malone officials have postponed Sunday's parade, one of the largest Black parades in the country.��

Mayor Cara Spencer and Keisha Lee, CEO of the Annie Malone Children & Family Services nonprofit, said the storm and its aftermath required the community's attention more right now.

“We will announce another date soon,” Spencer said.

Church volunteer 'Ms. Pat' mourned

11:30 a.m.: Patricia Penelton fed the homeless and other residents of the Fountain Park neighborhood for years.

Penelton, 70, was one of three people in Centennial Christian Church who were trapped when a tornado ripped through the area that brought the church steeple down crashing into the building. Authorities said one died in the collapse on Friday. Friends and neighbors identified her as Penelton.

They said Penelton was a longtime driving force for the church's community service, often at the church cooking meals alongside her husband and inviting anyone she could convince to come and take a plate.

"Heaven got an angel, but we lost a gem," said Yolonda Yancie, 10th Ward Democratic Committeewoman.

Penelton and others had just finished cooking a lunch service at the church when the tornado struck, said the church's former pastor, the Rev. Derrick Perkins Sr.

The tornado collapsed the church steepled and roof, trapping Penelton and two others, who were rescued and taken to a hospital for treatment.

The church community was "in shock," said Perkins, who led the church for more than 17 years until stepping away last month.

"There are a lot of broken hearts here today."

The church, in ӣ����Ƶ' Fountain Park neighborhood, had been there for 80 years and was an integral part of the community, Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard said. It served as a gathering place for the neighborhood and helped sponsor holiday celebrations in the park next door, a centerpiece for the neighborhood and its namesake. Penelton, who led the church's food outreach, was always the one cooking for the events, Clark Hubbard said.

"She was selfless," she said.

Yancie said Penelton was well known by residents. She was tall, always had a wide smile, and was always inviting people to come take a plate or bowl of her famous chili, Yancie said.

Penelton and her husband worked together at the church.

"The church was their life," Yancie said. "And she was the peanut butter to his jelly. You would never see one without the other."

Lisa Simmons, who has lived across the street from the church, said "Ms. Pat" was a constant sight at the church. She wasn't a member of the congregation, but Penelton would often knock on her door to invite her to share some food.

"She was always there," Simmons said. "And she was always friendly."

Some MetroLink trains down

11:10 a.m.: Blue line MetroLink trains are not operating between Brentwood I-64 and Forest Park-DeBaliviere stations, the train system said Saturday morning.

Metro Transit is using shuttles to move passengers along that stretch of the line. MetroLink trains are running between Lambert and Shiloh-Scott stations on the red line, and on the blue line between Shrewsbury-Lansdowne I-44 and Brentwood I-64 stations, and between Forest Park-DeBaliviere and Emerson Park stations.

Two bus lines, No. 41 Lee and No. 42 Sarah, are not running because of power lines on the roads.

ӣ����Ƶ firefighters continue to search for victims

10:50 a.m.: ӣ����Ƶ Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said that firefighters searched about 4,000 homes by 2:30 a.m. Another search, using boom microphones and cameras will continue on Saturday, with the assistance of area fire departments.

"We've got a lot left to do," Jenkerson said at the press conference. "We won't leave any stone unturned" in searching buildings for victims.

Gov. Mike Kehoe said the state also sent search-and-rescue units to help.

State highway patrol sent troopers to assist with policing.

More than 35 people injured in ӣ����Ƶ

10:45 a.m.: ӣ����Ƶ Mayor Cara Spencer said the city counts 38 people injured in Friday's storm; the death toll didn't increase overnight.��

"Many, many, many people worked throughout the night without a break and they're still here this morning. Thank you," Spencer said at a press conference at mid-morning Saturday, the day's second.

An early estimate is that 5,000 buildings were damaged, she said.

The City Forestry Department is working to restore access to streets.

"They did an enormous amount of work ensuring that first responders and residents could get through our streets," Spencer said. After clearing streets, the department will work to restore traffic signals.

City officials will announce resources for impacted residents, and ways for volunteers to help later Saturday.��

Clayton streets still without power

10 a.m.: Traffic lights were still out Saturday morning along McCausland Avenue and South Skinker Boulevard, just west of Forest Park. Tree limbs and branches littered the roadways, sidewalks and driveways. Some trees had been torn in half. A streetlight was down.

Kelsey Koenig, 37, came home from work Friday afternoon to find a front window shattered in her 1922 Tudor home and a large tree branch through the windshield of her family’s Chrysler Pacifica minivan.

“I was definitely surprised by the magnitude,” Koenig said.

Multiple trees along Koenig’s street were uprooted, large branches snapped off of nearly every other tree. Near the intersection of Aberdeen Place and DeMun Avenue, a large tree had fallen on power lines.

Neighborhood children were riding their bikes Saturday morning as their parents worked to clear the damage.

In the 90 block of Aberdeen, Zach Vesoulis sat on his porch assembling a new gas-powered chain saw.

“That’s my truck over there,” Vesoulis said, gesturing to a Ford F-150 in the street that was squished by a tree. “Or at least it was my truck.”

Vesoulis, a neonatologist at WashU Medicine, said he ran home through Forest Park on Friday afternoon and saw extensive damage along the way.

“It was its own apocalyptic adventure,” Vesoulis said.

A couple doors down, John Schoon, 93, was sweeping debris off his front walkway. Two trees in front of Schoon’s house were uprooted, including a large sycamore Schoon said had stood outside his house since the start of his 44 years living on Aberdeen.

The wind Friday was going “this way and that,” Schoon said. From where he watched the storm near a second story window, Schoon said he heard “strange sounds.”

“I can’t even describe the dang things,” said Schoon, a retired physical education teacher. “It was like nothing I ever heard.”

Shelters open; tornado 'very likely'

Previously: National Weather Service officials asked residents to stay away from downed power lines and crumbling buildings on Saturday as they sought to assess the damage of Friday's storm and categorize what officials said was almost certainly a tornado that ripped across ӣ����Ƶ.

The Red Cross also announced the opening of three ӣ����Ƶ shelters for families affected:

• Grace United Methodist Church, 6199 Waterman Blvd., ӣ����Ƶ;
• Friendly Temple Outreach Center, 6356 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, ӣ����Ƶ;
• 12th & Park Recreation Center, 1410 S. Tucker Blvd., ӣ����Ƶ.

The storm hit the region Friday afternoon. It killed at least five people, tore away roofs and walls, uprooted trees and crushed cars across the ӣ����Ƶ area.

Rescue personnel continued to search buildings across the city into the early morning. About 100,000 residents across the region remain without power.��

A storm, which has not yet been officially designated as tornado by the National Weather Service, appears to have touched down in Clayton, ripped trees out of the ground as it traveled down old, wealthy neighborhoods west of Forest Park, jumped across Skinker Boulevard, hit the ӣ����Ƶ Zoo, The Muny theater and the stage for Shakespeare Festival ӣ����Ƶ' upcoming show "Hamlet."

Then it spun north, into north ӣ����Ƶ communities like Fountain Park, where it devastated entire streets, tearing off second floors, throwing roofs onto the road, sending bricks flying and flipping cars as they drove.

It may have gone as far as Granite City, a weather service official said Saturday.

Sarah Russell, commissioner of the city’s emergency management agency, said at a press conference Saturday that the city put out a tornado watch alert hours before the storm to the 200,000 or so subscribers to its NotifySTL platform.

The tornado warning, an upgraded alert, went out at 2:38 p.m., which triggered the general alerts to cellphones in the area.

Russell said it is looking into complaints that some residents did not hear sirens, but noted that the sirens are generally meant for people outside, not inside.

She also said cellphone service towers and infrastructure were damaged during the storm. Crews worked overnight to get service back up.

Ben Herzog, science and operations officer at the National Weather Service’s local field office, said weather service staff will be driving the tornado route on Saturday, assessing building damage to gauge the strength of the storm.

He said the storm was “very likely” a tornado. Radar showed material lifted into the air. And just driving in and seeing debris, he estimated winds of at least 100 mph, and perhaps higher.