For months, the stacks of bricks, shattered wood and other debris have grown higher and higher at the corner of Fountain and Bayard avenues.

The oblong-shaped, mixed-use property in the Fountain Park neighborhood in north St. Louis sat vacant for years before an EF3 tornado ravaged it and thousands of other homes on May 16.

Recently, on a 91-degree afternoon, Dennis Collins stood outside the building looking over the debris, trying to salvage the badly damaged building that lost a wall and its distinctive turret-style roof during the storm. He does the work for his cousin, who owns the building.

Every day, he and other workers stack more debris at the curb, waiting for crews hired by the city to take away the piles.

"Ain't nobody been out here because I've been out here every week, eve

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