ST. LOUIS — A series of human and policy failures, from a misunderstood comment to equipment problems, left the city unable to activate tornado sirens before a deadly storm hit in May, according to a consultant's report released Monday.

The city's emergency management staffers were at an off-site workshop and away from their siren button when the tornado hit, despite multiple early storm warnings, the report says. When the emergency management chief called a Fire Department dispatcher to have them activate sirens, the dispatcher didn't understand the direction. If the dispatcher had understood, it wouldn't have worked: the roof antenna couldn't connect to the sirens. And even if it could have connected, several of the sirens in the path of the storm were broken.

Law firm Carmody MacDonal

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