L. got a call one recent Friday from a friend, desperate to talk and pleading to meet. She hesitated. She hardly ventures out anymore. That evening, she risked it and, for two hours, shared slices of ...

ST. LOUIS — James Fayne vividly remembers May 16 when a tornado roared through his north St. Louis neighborhood. The 63-year-old custodian tried to make it home to Elmbank Avenue. "Trees and limbs and ...