Five were dead in St. Louis, and two others died in Scott County, in southeastern Missouri, officials said.
Speaking at an evening news conference, St. Louis officials said over 5,000 homes may have been affected by the afternoon’s outbreak of severe weather.
A spokesperson for both St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Barnes-Jewish Hospital said the facilities have received at least 35 patients in total, with the children’s facility getting 15 and Barnes-Jewish seeing at least 20, possibly 30 who were injured as a result of the severe weather.
The spokesperson said all but two patients at the children’s facility were expected to be released Friday night; one was reported earlier to be in critical condition. Some of those at Barnes-Jewish were to be released, while others were said to be in serious condition, the spokesperson said.
At the late news conference, Mayor Cara Spencer announced that the number of fatalities has risen from four to five. She had said earlier that two of the dead were killed in North City, where a vortex was reported.
A northern swath of the city from Forest Park to the northern boundary was subject of a curfew through 6 a.m., the mayor said.
Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said severe weather hit about 20 square blocks of the city.
St. Louis police spokesperson Mitch McCoy said search-and-rescue operations were still underway with the help of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and surrounding county first responders.
“It’s all hands on deck to rescue as many people as we can and save lives,” he told NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis.
Search crews will find much darkness in the city, with more than 40,000 utility customers in the St. Louis region without power Friday night, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. Missouri has more than 97,000 customers in the dark, according to the site.
The tornado was reported after 2:30 p.m. in the city near Forest Park and moving east toward Granite City, Illinois, said National Weather Service meteorologist Marshall Pfahler.
Its force level is unlikely to be known until Saturday when weather service spotters are able to get to the scene and measure damage, tracks and other elements of the vortex, he said.
The weather service office that covers St. Louis later said on X, “Damage reports and radar imagery suggest a tornado likely occurred across parts St Louis this afternoon. We will have a survey team on the ground tomorrow to confirm and assign a rating.”
KSDK reported that two tornadoes may have touched down in the region on Friday. The National Weather Service said it was working to confirm the second twister.
MNA/
