SULLIVAN, Mo. — One More Pub & Grub in Sullivan, Missouri, was destroyed by a tornado during severe weather Tuesday morning.
The National Weather Service survey crews investigated damage around the St. Louis region from the severe storm system. NWS confirmed an EF1 tornado with max winds of 100 mph started near Sullivan High School and ended near the eastern edge of Meramec State Park.
The Sullivan bar, previously known as Hilltop Lounge, was heavily damaged by the tornado at around 4 a.m.
First responders on the scene said the owners of the bar were made aware of the damage early Tuesday morning.
Bar owner Jane Epperson said she also rents out a home near the bar. She had heard from her renter, and no one was injured in the storm.
"My neighbor, who is an EMT, he's said 'Jane, it's either the building or the house," she said. "But he had just heard that it was destroyed."
She said she has owned the bar for 10 years and has received an outpouring of support.
"I've been getting Facebook messages, text messages saying they have our support, very sorry to hear about it. The biggest thing is no one was hurt," she said.
The renter, Ron Bridgeman, said that he'll never see anything like this again. He is grateful he survived the 100 mph winds.
"That dumpster, that was another thing," Bridgeman said, gesturing to the bar's dumpster. "I was standing on the porch and never saw anything like that again. I probably never will. The wind got under this dumpster. I swear this. That dumpster just lifted up straight up about this high from the bottom to the ground. It just looked like it was floating on water."
"You don't really have time to be afraid," Bridgeman said. "You think you would and I guess I was a little shaky and sick to my stomach afterwards."
Bridgeman has lived in this house next door to the bar for four years and is grateful his house was not damaged at all outside of a few trees nearby being partially broken. High winds came through in April 2023 and a tree fell on his house.
When asked why he doesn't move, "Well, you got to live somewhere," he said.
"As far as luck, I feel real lucky because I went through two of them just in a little over a year," he said. "I'm still here to tell you about it. A lot of people don't get that lucky."
People on the scene told 5 On Your Side reporter Mercedes Mackay that the bar recently held a memorial for a woman who ran the karaoke at the bar. They were looking around to see if they could find the urn or any remnants of the memorial that was made in her honor.
It was not an easy task considering the tornado made the bar look like a skeleton of itself with wood, nails, insulation, watered-down electronics and anything else you can think of that would be inside your typical local haunt. Making it look like the bar got turned inside out from the high-speed winds.
Now, it is no longer a place to host karaoke nights, family gatherings or provide a space to make memories, which is one of the hardest parts for John Patterson, who said he's made countless friends at the bar.
Patterson's mom, Norma Studdard, is the woman who ran the karaoke at the bar and had the memorial inside One More Pub and Grub after her passing from cancer less than a year ago. Patterson said Studdard came here all the time.
It was hard to keep his eyes dry talking about what he saw this morning and how he wanted to help clean up to feel close to his mom.
If Studdard saw what her favorite bar looks like now, "Oh God, she'd be in tears," Patterson said. "She would be in tears. She loved this place. She'd get mad if we didn't have the gas to come up here. She was always short on gas, always short on money. She'd get mad if it snowed. She'd try every way in the world to make it here."
Patterson is not the only regular trying to wrap his head around how this all happened early Tuesday morning.
"One of my daughters' moms calls me and tells me that 'One More was no more' and I was like what are you talking about," Patterson said. "Then she sent me the picture and I was like, oh good lord."
Seeing it in person was even more difficult.
"My heart sunk," Patterson said once he arrived on the scene shortly after the tornado hit.
"Why is your mom such a large part of why you wanted to come out here?" 5 On Your Side reporter Annie Krall asked him.
"It felt like I was being close (to her)" Patterson answered. "I didn't get to say goodbye."
5 On Your Side asked if the bar will be rebuilt or if there is a way to help with a GoFundMe page to raise money for reconstruction. However, the owner and improvised clean-up crew said it's still too fresh to talk about building One More Pub and Grub from the ground up again.
Emergency management in the area also said Sullivan High School was damaged by the storms. The damage to the high school was limited to minor damage to an awning over a walkway.
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