Crime & Safety

Sunset Hills Commemorates Tornado Anniversary

Speeches and a flag unveiling marked the special day while members of the community remembered last New Year's Eve.

With blue skies overhead and the high topping 70 degrees on Dec. 31, 2011, the City of Sunset Hills commemorated a day last year when the weather was the complete opposite—Dec. 31, 2010, the day of the tornado. 

Mayor Bill Nolan welcomed the crowd at the Sunset Hills Community Center, who included elected officials, community members and those afflicted by last year’s storm.

“It’s not a memorial, because thank God no one was injured,” Nolan said. “And, it’s not a celebration because of the turmoil and stress and the strain that our citizens suffered because of the tornado can hardly be celebrated.”

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Sunset Hills citizen Jim Williams recovered an American flag after the tornado hit, cleaned it and brought it up to city hall. It hung in the chambers for the next board meeting and then it was taken down. The city decided to have the flag framed and hung in the community center. Williams’ company, Sunset Transport, donated the money to have the materials purchased to frame the flag. 

Nolan thanked a number of people who contributed to the recovery success. Elected officials, board of aldermen members, Gerald Brown of the parks department and City Clerk Laura Rider.  

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“In an instance like this when a tornado occurs or any other disaster the fire department is in charge,” Nolan said.

He then announced newly appointed Fire Chief Brian Hendricks, who said that when looking back on that day, he was monitoring the storm from their district headquarters and started to make a plan.

“On that day, Chief LaFata (Assistant Chief Dan LaFata) and I were at the center. We were here within four minutes of the storm leaving Sunset Hills,” Hendricks said. “In our line of work there are things that keep you awake at night, ‘What could I do; What am I going to do if I am faced with this?’ I can tell you that you are never really prepared for something like this.”

When responding, Hendricks took an alternate route so that multiple trucks were converging on the area in multiple directions. When he crested on the hill and saw the damage and the devastation he knew that they were going to be in for a long day. 

“I knew that the community was forever was going to be changed,” he said. “The one thing that overwhelmed me was the sense of community. I can’t tell you how many times people would come up to the command post and say ‘I’m a resident of Sunset Hills and I want to help.’” 

He realized in a short time that responders needed to give the citizens of Sunset Hills something to do.

“You could see that they were hurting and they wanted to help their neighbor. That’s something very special,” Hendricks said. “Never have I been struck by the overwhelming caring for another than I was when we ran this incident.”

Hendricks said that the lessons learned from the fire protection district will never be forgotten.

“The changes that were made from our district will affect all of St. Louis County. We dodged it; we made it through. We didn’t lose any firefighters or paramedics; we didn’t lose any taxpayers. The one thing I want everybody to know is how special this city is,” he said.

Service International representative Pastor Jeff Perry spoke next. Service International, who has aided those in Sri Lanka and after Hurricane Katrina, coordinated the more than 1,800 registered volunteers for relief efforts. Perry  commended the fire department and was grateful that no one got hurt. He theb quoted the Queen of England’s Christmas address to the commonweatlth.

“I have seen that in hardship that we often find strength from our families. It’s in adversity that new friendships are sometimes formed and in a crisis that communities break down barriers and bond together to help one another. Sadly it seems that it’s tragedy that often draws out the best of the human spirits. Finding hope in adversity is one of the themes of Christmas. “

“Your local leadership, the homeowners, Mayor Nolan, are to be commended and this also is a commemoration of God’s goodness over our community and our group is really grateful to have been able to have been a part of it,” Perry said.

Kevin O’Leary testified that the tornado hit O’Leary’s at 11:46 a.m. because the clock stopped at 11:46. The flag was then unveiled around the same time by Tony Tumminia, who suffered through the tragedy of the tornado with his wife, then 6-month-old son and his father. They crawled into a crawlspace under the stairs in the basement, and their entire house was blown off the top of it.

After the unveiling, Tumminia read the story of the day of the tornado from a plaque he presented to the city.  The basement used to be a walk-out. An addition to the house created an alcove under the stairs, where the family hit from the tornado.

“Sounds were beyond description; the pressure on our ears was almost unbearable. All the windows gave way to the pressure and imploded. The sky was the only thing above us. We felt as if it would never end,” Tumminia said.

After checking for injuries, Tumminia’s family was happy to be alive and without too much damage. The entire structure of their house except for the foundation walls was gone.

“Everything that truly matters was present and accounted for,” he said, choking back tears. “My family had survived.”


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