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ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - St. Louis storm victims got a boost Thursday as a group of clergy announced $1 million in state money going to storm relief.

Local pastors said they are optimistic the funding will move quickly, but some victims remain skeptical they’ll ever see it.

“I still have mold in my house. I have mushrooms growing in my house, I have squirrels going in my house, both my chimneys were knocked off,” said Tammy Moore.

Moore said that since the tornado, she has suffered from depression and can’t sleep. While she received $10,000 from FEMA, she said it was only a fraction of what is needed to repair her home.

“I don’t know what to do from here,” said Moore.

On Thursday, victims like Moore got some good news.

“It should not be hard to get help from us,” said Bishop Lee Scott.

The Spirit of St. Louis Task Force, made up of clergy and local organizations helping disaster victims, announced the state is granting $1 million for storm recovery. The money will be distributed in $50,000 increments as it is spent.

The group thanked Gov. Mike Kehoe and said they trust the state will keep payments flowing.

“Trust me, if they don’t, you’ll hear from us again because we’re not going nowhere,” said Scott.

The funding will be earmarked for mortgage, rent and utility assistance, along with reimbursements for hotel bills and other expenses. Any Missouri resident affected by the 2025 storms is eligible.

Applications are open immediately, and in-person meetings with staff are expected to begin next week.

Organizers said the vetting process will not be as intense as FEMA’s and that payments should go to victims within seven days of approval.

“As the money comes in we can get it out as fast as we can,” said Scott.

But some victims are skeptical.

“It’s been so hard so far, and I don’t really believe anything they saying,” said Moore.

Victims like Moore, who also lost a longtime family home, said after so many empty promises, she needs to see results before believing.

“All I got to say is, show us,” said Moore.

The announcement comes during a federal shutdown. While the program is not affected, it’s unclear whether FEMA payments or other federal aid could slow down.

Adolphus Pruitt, head of the local NAACP, said the community will step up whether federal help comes through or not.

ST. LOUIS—Saint Louis County issued a public health alert to raise awareness about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).

RECA will provide up to $50,000 to families affected by cancer and other diseases tied to Manhattan Project-era radiation exposure in parts of North Saint Louis County, Saint Charles County and surrounding areas.

A study published earlier this year found that living near Coldwater Creek as a child in the 1950s and 1960s was associated with an increased risk of overall cancer as well as a higher incidence of cancers linked to radiation.

“Residents of Saint Louis County deserve to understand the potential health impacts of radiation exposure and to have access to resources that support cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment. The Department of Public Health is committed to working with local partners, health care providers, and community organizations toprotect our residents and ensure those affected by radiation exposure are supported,” Dr. Kanika Cunningham, Director, Saint Louis County Department of Public Health.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and many of those impacted pushed for a bill to compensate people affected. That law passed as part of the reconciliation bill during summer. In August, the county put out information for victims to apply. Just over a week ago, the payouts began.

The Department of Public Health (DPH) for St. Louis County wants its citizens to act sooner than later.

DPH says know your eligibility. Those who lived, worked or spent time in impacted ZIP codes may qualify. Anyone that qualifies is urged to consult their doctor and get screened: mammograms, colonoscopy, low-dose CT scan for starters. Any persisten and unexplained symptoms should be addressed by a healthcare provider immediately. Finally, stay informed by following DPH updates.

DPH says cancer remains the second leading cause of death in Saint Louis County.

Breast also is commonly linked with radiation exposure and DPH says black women are diagnosed more often than white women and twice as likely to die compared to white women within the same area.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – The St. Louis County Department of Public Health issued a “public health alert” on Thursday to raise awareness about Coldwater Creek, radiation exposure and potential compensation for affected residents.

Federal legislation approving the Radiation Compensation Exposure Act (RECA) took effect in July, allowing Missouri residents who developed cancers or other radiation-linked illnesses in contaminated areas to apply for potential compensation.

County public health officials say radiation exposure may increase the risk of certain cancers, particularly for those who lived, worked, or spent time in certain ZIP codes throughout north St. Louis County.

According to the public health alert, cancer is the second leading cause of death in Saint Louis County, and the Missouri Cancer Registry reports more than 5,000 new cancer diagnoseseach year locally.

County health officials add that people living in RECA-impacted ZIP codes were:

“Residents of Saint Louis County deserve to understand the potential health impacts of radiation exposure and to have access to resources that support cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment,” said Dr. Kanika Cunningham, Director, Saint Louis County Department of Public Health via the public health alert. “The Department of Public Health is committed to working with local partners, health care providers, and community organizations to protect our residents and ensure those affected by radiation exposure are supported,”

In recent years, national reports have suggested that the federal government downplayed and failed to fully investigate the risks of nuclear waste contamination that stemmed from the Manhattan Project, a World War II-era uranium production effort in the St. Louis region.

When leftover nuclear waste was later disposed, it made way into Coldwater Creek, a 19-mile tributary of the Missouri River that runs through neighborhoods, schools, and parks.

Under RECA, cancers such as leukemia, lymphomas, tumors, lung, breast and others may qualify for compensation. It extends eligibility to residents in 21 St. Louis-area ZIP codes, primarily in north St. Louis County near Coldwater Creek.

Eligible ZIP Codes include: 63031, 63033, 63034, 63042, 63045, 63074, 63114, 63135, 63138, 63044, 63121, 63140, 63145, 63147, 63102, 63304, 63134, 63043, 63341, 63368, and 63367.

The Department of Public Health also outlined the following steps for individuals following Thursday’s public health alert:

1) Know your eligibility – Individuals who lived, worked, or spent time in areas affected by radiation exposure may qualify for compensation under RECA. Click here for details.

2) Get Screened – Talk with your primary care physician or medical specialist about your personal cancer risks and schedule appropriate screenings.

3) Seek Care Promptly – Report persistent or unexplained health symptoms (such as unexplained weight loss, chronic cough, blood in urine or stool, or new lumps) to your health care provider immediately.

4) Stay Informed – Follow the department for updates on environmental health risks andavailable community resources.

State money will soon begin going to victims of the May tornado in St. Louis via an organization made up of north side churches. But the total dollars will start out small with a possibility of increasing.

The Spirit of St. Louis Task Force, a faith-based disaster response and relief initiative born in response to the storm, announced Thursday it was one of eight groups across Missouri to be chosen to distribute disaster relief funds from the Missouri Housing Trust Fund.

The group asked for $1 million but will have to start with $50,000. Total damage from the storm is estimated to be more than $1.5 billion.

“We’re not focused on the number that they gave us; we're looking at the larger number,” said Bishop Lee Scott of Lively Stone Church of God. "We're trying to make people whole again.”

Scott said once the group has distributed the initial grant, it can apply for more. He said he has faith that the process will continue until it can make payments close to the $1 million figure.

“Faith is based upon stepping out on something that you don't know is going to exist. We're having faith in [the state] to do what they say they're going to do,” Scott said. “Trust me, if they don't, you'll hear from us again because we're not going nowhere.”

Scott said people seeking aid for help paying rental assistance, utilities, mortgage payments and lost pay due to the tornado, and they will start hearing back from caseworkers on their applications next week.

The goal for these grant funds is to get money to applicants within a week of their applications being approved to pay outstanding debts to get storm victims back on track.

“Not just to help people and give them a bandage, but to get them out of the ditch so that they can walk for themselves,” said Myron Gray, executive director at Gia Community Development, the nonprofit organization working with the churches.

Federal, state and city money has been slow to get to some north side residents trying to rebuild their lives after the tornado, leaving some in the . Clearing debris has also been .

“There are still people today, 139 days later, that are in the same place that they were in on May 16th,” said 10th ward Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard. “The work that these churches are doing is critical. We know many of these relief works started in church basements.”

This story has been updated.

A federal case challenging the safety of mifepristone, used to treat miscarriages and to induce abortions early in pregnancy, is being transferred out of Texas to a federal court in Missouri.

The lawsuit demands the federal government restore its previous restrictions on mifepristone by requiring three in-person doctor visits, reducing the gestational period during which the medication can be taken from 10 weeks to seven and rolling back recent federal policy that allowed for the mailing of mifepristone and allowed for prescriptions to be made online or through pharmacies.

“This case has always been about ideology, not patient safety,” Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains said in a statement Wednesday, “It’s no surprise it has now been transferred to a district where nearly half the bench was elevated to the judiciary after undermining abortion rights at the Missouri attorney general’s office.”

Four of the court’s nine judges were appointed in May by President Donald Trump. Two, Josh Divine and Maria Lanahan, worked on the mifepristone case before their appointments.

“This order ensures Missouri’s case will be heard where it belongs: in Missouri,” the Missouri Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Wednesday. “We will continue protecting the health and safety of women and children in our state and continue fighting to hold the Biden Administration and its allies accountable for unlawfully loosening safeguards on chemical abortion drugs.”

The initial lawsuit was filed in Texas by a group of anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the original lawsuit after concluding the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue because they couldn’t show they had been harmed. Erin Morrow Hawley argued the case in front of the nation’s highest court on behalf of the initial plaintiffs. She is the wife of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Soon after, the attorneys general from Missouri, Kansas and Idaho refiled the litigation. The defendants in the case — the FDA and mifepristone’s manufacturer — asked that the latest case be thrown out.

On Tuesday, Texas federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk declined that request and transferred the case to the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis. Kacsmaryk wrote that he had no jurisdiction over the remaining plaintiffs.

“Instead of returning this years-long case to square one,” Kacsmaryk wrote that it made sense to transfer the case to “avoid the costs and delay” that would surely come from dismissing the case only to have a plaintiff re-file it in another jurisdiction.

Kacsmaryk said he chose Missouri among the states suing because “the Eastern District of Missouri is an accessible district with a major city.”

In his ruling, Kacsmaryk seemed reluctant to give up the case. He wrote that precedent “led every jurist who assessed this case to conclude that the original plaintiffs had a jurisdictionally valid case.”

But the Supreme Court didn’t agree, he noted, and “it is not the province of lower courts to defy the Supreme Court.”

Had Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to intervene earlier, Kacsmaryk noted, he could have kept the case in his court as jurisdictional issues “would have easily been satisfied.”

Right now, medication abortion is inaccessible through Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri.

Last November, voters codified the right to abortion in the state constitution. Now, a Jackson County judge is weighing whether to keep in place two state regulations that Planned Parenthood says are preventing its providers from performing medication abortions in Missouri.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has argued in court filings that the lawsuit was filed to re-establish “long-standing safety requirements” for mifepristone. In ongoing court cases surrounding regulations around abortion in Missouri, the attorney general’s office has repeatedly painted mifepristone as a dangerous medication.

“The FDA has enabled online abortion providers to mail FDA-approved abortion drugs to women in states that regulate abortion — dispensing abortion drugs with no doctor care, no exam and no in-person follow-up care,” the attorneys general wrote in the amended lawsuit last year. “These dangerous drugs are now flooding states like Missouri and Idaho and sending women in these states to the emergency room.”

They also argued that current regulations around mifepristone make it impossible to track and prevent medication abortions.

“All of this makes it difficult for state law enforcement to detect and deter state law violations and to give effect to state abortion laws,” the attorneys general wrote.

According to the FDA, mifepristone is safe to use if taken as directed.

Cramping and bleeding are common side effects of the medication. Those prescribed mifepristone are urged to call their doctor if they experience heavy bleeding, abdominal pain or a fever. The same guidance applies to those who recently underwent surgical abortions, experienced miscarriages or delivered a baby.

Since the medication was approved for use 28 years ago, 32 deaths have been reported associated with mifepristone, according to the FDA. The report evaluates data from 5.9 million women who took mifepristone between 2000 and 2022. Of the three dozen deaths, 11 were the result of sepsis, 20 were homicides and two were suicides.

Last year, while arguing in court records that mifepristone harms Missouri and therefore the state has the standing to sue, former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey contended access to mifepristone lowered “birth rates for teenaged mothers,” contributing to a population loss along with “diminishment of political representation and loss of federal funds.”

“Younger women are more likely to navigate online abortion finders or websites ordering mail-order medication to self-manage abortions,” the filing reads.

Abortion rights advocates and medical professionals continue to argue that mifepristone is safe.

“In Missouri, we are all too familiar with the attacks on medication abortion not grounded in science,” Margot Riphagen, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, said in a statement Wednesday. “And continue to witness the detrimental public health outcomes as a result of politically motivated lawsuits, misinformation, and restrictions.”

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