St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said Friday it could take "several years" to remove debris left by the May 16 tornado if the city's request for help from the Army Corps of Engineers is denied.
The mayor sent a letter to state officials in July asking for help from the Corps to remove an estimated 1 million tons of debris.
"This is an effort that, frankly, we don't have the local expertise or the manpower within city government to lead," Spencer said at a press briefing. "It is an enormous lift, and we are really leaning on our federal and state partners to get this handled in the most efficient and effective way possible."
The request has the support of the entire Missouri congressional delegation and has been forwarded to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will make the final decision. Spencer said she knows the help is not guaranteed, and the city is working on a backup plan.
"We are committed to doing the hard work of not only removing debris from the community, but really setting the stage to be able to rebuild," she said. "Proper debris removal is critical to be able to rebuild north St. Louis."
The city is already having to rely on its streets and forestry employees longer than expected to remove debris from private property after Spritas Worldwide realized that the work outlined in a $3 million contract signed in July was beyond its capacity.
"We are very disappointed in this because we had full confidence that we were going to be able to get that enormous debris out of our community," Spencer said.
Spirtas will finish removing debris from the temporary sites, and the city has put the private property debris removal back out for bids.
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