The mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, rolled out a $19.2 million investment plan to fill in what she calls "FEMA cracks" after destructive tornadoes in May. CBS News correspondent Ian Lee has more.

St. Louis

The mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, has introduced a $19.2 million investment plan to address unmet needs following tornadoes that caused significant damage to homes and neighborhoods. The initiative, described as filling in 'FEMA cracks,' is intended to support food, rent, home rebuilding, and social services where federal and state aid has not sufficed.

Local officials and residents have voiced concerns that federal assistance, particularly from FEMA, has been inadequate given the estimated $1.6 billion in damages. While the city's new plan aims to provide targeted relief, both city leaders and community members acknowledge that the funding is limited compared to the scale of the disaster and emphasize the ongoing importance of federal support for full recovery.

St. Louis mayor announces investment plan to fill in "FEMA cracks"

Now, in some places, communities impacted by natural disasters say federal aid just isn't enough. In Saint Louis, Missouri, tornadoes in May tore homes apart and left entire neighborhoods in ruins. Now today, the mayor of Saint Louis rolled out a $19.2 million investment plan to fill in what she calls FEMA cracks following the disaster. We know that the need is urgent and we have been working hard over the past few weeks to put this package together. I'm proud of my team, our city departments, and the partners in the community who have worked on developing a solid plan that allows us to spend these funds where the need is greatest and in ways that won't overlap with what our partners at FEMA and at the state level are doing. Let's bring in CBS News correspondent Ian Lee joining us live now from Kansas City, Missouri in great to be with you. You covered the aftermath of those tornadoes back in May. Now you're seeing the federal response to flash flooding in Texas. What do you hear from community members? Do they feel like FEMA is doing enough? No, a simple answer. Speaking with people in Saint Louis, they think FEMA should be doing more. As we heard just now from the mayor, the city is trying to do what they can. They have that $19.2 million to help with food, rent, rebuilding homes as well. Social support, but that disaster was about $1.6 billion, so that nearly $20 million is a drop in the bucket and can't fill in where the federal government could step in. When I spoke with the mayor just after that tornado, she said that cities can't do this alone. If the federal government isn't there, that's just a death blow to a city because they just can't bring up that amount of funds to repair. And so the residents in Saint Louis, they feel like things are going slow. That's possibly why we heard the mayor come out with this new plan. Even she admits this isn't. This isn't much, but it is the most they can do at this moment, but it does show kind of the role the federal government has when you have big disasters like this. And in it, it's interesting. Let's go back to Central Texas for a moment where officials have been facing questions over the past week or so. Over over whether they could have done more to warn people ahead of the flooding, and some local agencies say they simply couldn't get the funding. To install warning systems with the phasing out of FEMA, make those changes even harder to accomplish, or would it make it make way for state agencies to take the lead on this? Yeah, Elizabeth, you know, the Trump administration is has a big gamble on their hands, right? They say that getting rid of FEMA, putting that money to the states is going to be more effective. Well, the proof of the pudding's in the eating. It is a high stakes game. We will have to wait and see if that's. If that does happen, if that's the plan they go with, but there has been criticism on this slow response to Texas. Secretary Noem. It's reported that she has to sign off on anything over $100,000. When you have big disasters that can be in the billions of dollars, anything over $100,000 that people say that slows the aid down. And when you look at FEMA, the real you could almost look at it in two. Different has two different missions, right? You have the first initial response. Getting to a disaster zone. Helping to find people that search and rescue. It's that medical care it's it's trying to make sure everyone who's affected is safe. And then there's the recovery plan, and that is can be drawn out for years to try to make people whole. You know, when you look at Texas, as tragic as it is, that disaster is on a smaller scale than what we see when you have an. Enormous hurricane take out, you know, hit states and take out multiple states. And so the test officials say is really going to be this summer and later this summer when you have these huge hurricanes, how FEMA responds to those disasters. Yeah, alright Ian Lee. Thanks so much for that.

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