One More Pub and Grub in Sullivan, Missouri is now a pile of lumber and and torn roofing after a tornado sped through the town. FOX News Reporter Olivianna Calmes reports.
SULLIVAN, Mo. – A tornado tore through Sullivan, Missouri, overnight and left a popular neighborhood pub a pile of lumber and torn insulation.
Jane Epperson was jolted awake by the town’s tornado siren at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday. Then, the call came in that her pub of a decade had been hit. She hurried over.
“On the way, the police told me,” she told FOX Multimedia Reporter Olivianna Calmes. “I said, ‘Well, how much damage is there?’ And they said, ‘It’s done. It’s gone.'”
Only a few bottles were standing
As she pulled up to One More Pub and Grub, she had to swerve around parts of the bar that, just days before, hosted lively karaoke. From her car, she could see one of the few parts of the bar left intact, the wall behind the bar with about half the liquor bottles stacked and upright as if waiting for the next customer.
The shelves behind the bar along with about half the bottles survived.
(Olivianna Calmes / FOX Weather)
The pub’s neighbor described the cacophony. He said that his screaming dog woke him up, “I thought I rolled over on him.”
“I started hearing wind and my house was shaking, I thought it was going to fall, but I didn’t really hear a lot of noise,” neighbor Ron Bridgeman said. “And then I heard a lot of high wind or sound like a couple trains and they both hit head on, is what it sounded like. I guess that’s when it took the bar out.”
An NWS survey team confirmed late Tuesday morning that a twister caused the damage, saying it was an EF-1 with max winds of 100 mph.
“It appears that it blew in one of the walls and then lifted the roof up and flipped the roof up over the top, and then dropped it in the parking lot below,” FOX 2 St. Louis Meteorologist Chris Higgins explained.
The NWS said the storm also caused minor damage to the nearby high school.
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The One More Pub owner and some long-time customers sift through the wreckage of the local hangout and sift through the debris to salvage whatever they can after a tornado leveled much of the building.
‘Staple in the community, torn apart’
Throughout the morning, Epperson and her husband had been sifting through the pile of debris to salvage whatever they could. Customers and bar employees have been stopping by to check on the couple and offer help.
“It’s just a shame to see a staple in the community like this completely, completely torn apart,” one former bartender told Calmes.
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Heavy damage from an EF-1 tornado is seen at the More Pub and Grub in Sullivan, Missouri, on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (MMR Olivianna Calmes)
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Heavy damage from an EF-1 tornado is seen at the More Pub and Grub in Sullivan, Missouri, on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (MMR Olivianna Calmes)
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Heavy damage from an EF-1 tornado is seen at the More Pub and Grub in Sullivan, Missouri, on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (MMR Olivianna Calmes)
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Heavy damage from an EF-1 tornado is seen at the More Pub and Grub in Sullivan, Missouri, on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (MMR Olivianna Calmes)
Epperson was emotional as she explained to Calmes that when the police first called, they were not sure if the empty pub or her rental house was damaged. She was relieved to find out that the house and her tenant were fine despite the pub being a total loss.
The building, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis, stood for about 50 years and spent the last two decades as a pub and restaurant, according to Higgins.