An IHOP "sinkhole" that swallowed more than a dozen vehicles and a dumpster in the parking lot of a recently opened restaurant in Mississippi appeared actually to be a collapsed underground drainage ditch.
Emergency personnel were called to the International House of Pancakes in Meridian about 7:15 p.m. on Saturday after customers heard a "series of booms" before electricity in the restaurant went out.
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YouTube video aerial view showed the 50-foot wide sinkhole extending the length of the parking lot and ending at a nearby creek, said
WTOK-TV.
"We received a call earlier this evening of a sinkhole opening up at the new IHOP restaurant," said Meridian Fire Department Battalion Chief Wayne Cook. "Upon arrival, we found multiple vehicles in the ditch. At this time, we are trying to stabilize this and keep everyone away."
Meridian Public Safety Director Buck Roberts told the
Meridian Star that engineers and contractors were investigating the cause of the sinkhole on Monday, but declined to call the collapse a sinkhole.
Sinkholes normally happen when an underground water aquifer dries up, leaving a void that results in a failure of the soil above.
"You can call it what you want, a cave-in or whatever, but it is not a sinkhole," said Roberts.
A storm dropped about 10 inches of rain in the Meridian area for the past two weeks before the collapse, said The Star, and it rained most of the day on Saturday prior to the collapse.
A metal pipe that drains storm water runoff into Sowashee Creek had buckled and Roberts said there was a broken underground water main at the site of the collapse, but added "the break is not the cause of our problems."
Roberts said the collapse grew on Sunday and that there was some concern that it may widen even more. He said workers will not be able to remove vehicles from the hole until the site stabilizes.
"If it stops raining for a while, I think we will be okay," said Roberts.
WTOK-TV said there were no reports of anyone being injured.
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