Massive Sinkhole Swallows Over a Dozen Cars at an IHOP Parking Lot

[MrWendel]

http://www.mediaite.com/online/massive-sinkhole-swallows-over-a-dozen-cars-at-an-ihop-parking-lot/

"Usually when people think about IHOP and the word “swallow,” it’s because they’re hungry for some mouth-watering pancakes. For a group of Saturday night diners at the one in Meridian, Mississippi, however, the ground itself opened up and devoured over a dozen cars into a gigantic sinkhole.

CBS reported that at about 7:15 P.M., the patrons felt what they thought was an earthquake, prompting them to run out and find a massive expanse that took in a section of the parking lot. No one was hurt, but when local patrolmen arrived, they determined that at least 14 vehicles were taken by the cave-in."



I just noticed in that pic that only one person got lucky out of this.

[JHB]

1. Everyone in that restaurant "got lucky"...

30 feet to the right, and it would have been under the building.

[MrWendel]

2. Thats true, and thats whats important...

car wise, not so much.

[Warpy]

5. Chances are the cars will be OK aside from a few dents and scratches

The one "lucky" car might only be temporarily lucky, it looks like the front left wheel is hanging off the asphalt. It will have to be towed to safety, too.

Imagine having a window seat, hearing and feeling the rumble, and having your car just vanish. Whoa!

It looks like somebody filled in an old stream bed so he could sell extra land.

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. Doesn't look like there is a path to drive the lucky car away

[Warpy]

31. Hard to tell. I imagine the street exit is at the lower part of the picture, cropped off.

There's been some drama here in NM because developers have filled in arroyos during the drought periods and homeowners have had rivers suddenly swallow up the kiddies' swing set in the back yard when they've been gouged out again by flash floods.

That picture looks like some idiot just dumped fill into a creek to make it go away when he wanted to sell that piece of land.

[jberryhill]

36. Oh, the story is better than that

http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/Collapsed-Culverts-History-343965612.html

Two days after the parking lot cave-in at the newly opened IHOP in Meridian the collapsed pipe, which city officials say caused it, is in clear view. That crumpled pipe, had actually replaced a much smaller one that had been there since the 1940's or 50's. The one that's now crushed was installed 14 years ago after some major flooding.

In January 1998 a total of 3.5 inches of rain fell within 12 hours time in Meridian, and this caused major flooding in the parking lot of Red Lobster along Frontage Road. That restaurant is located on the other side of the interstate from where the parking lot collapse occurred. When the flooding happened in 1998, there was a car dealership located were IHOP now sits, and that dealership also had some flooding. The dealership owner, Billy Jack Ethridge, says when the flooding occurred, city officials realized that a much bigger drainage pipe needed to be installed underground.

Then some idiot came and built an IHOP on top of it.

What gets me is all the reporting over a "mysterious sinkhole", when it is pretty damned obvious.

[B Calm]

3. Boy that would make you sick if you were inside looking out the window and

watched your brand new car getting swallowed. One guy was lucky though, but it would be scary backing that car out.

[Lochloosa]

4. If that is a pink car in the middle then two got lucky

[daleo]

6. Did IHOP LIHOP?

Just an accident of geology? I wonder?

[annabanana]

20. Hee!.. That cave-in is an awfully straight line..

innit?

[Eleanors38]

24. Maybe it traces the sewer interceptor.

[Igel]

7. Not really a sinkhole.

Looks like drainage going though the culvert just undermined the driveway/parking lot. Poor, shoddy construction and/or design. Somebody's going to get their butts sued off. Or it'll be a kind of "let's sue IHOP," while IHOP sues the contractor(s) who sue the (sub)contractor(s).

Really, I should have gone to law school.

[former9thward]

15. No one will be sued.

Starting with the car owners and IHOP everyone has insurance. If someone responsible does not have insurance then they have no money so it is not worth suing them. Most honest lawyers will tell you law school is very over-rated.

[Logical]

19. The insurance companies will go after the pipeline company. nt

[MrWendel]

8. Imagine...

What the guys at the construction site are thinking by now.

[Rex]

9. In Soviet Russia, IHOP swallows you!

[KT2000]

10. looks suspicious -

as in someone did not do their geological homework before building that restaurant and parking lot.

[former9thward]

16. The TV said an old drainage pipe collapsed.

[jberryhill]

34. Correct

They built it over a culvert that wasn't built with the mall across the highway in mind:

http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/Collapsed-Culverts-History-343965612.html

[longship]

11. More syrup on table seven please. R&K nt

[MrWendel]

12. Off all the places it could have appeared...

it just happened to take out almost all of the cars parked in front of the restaurant.

[TacoD]

28. My guess is

The photo was taken after all the cars that were not swallowed up got the hell out of there.

[MrWendel]

29. Yeah. lol Absolutely. Seeing that aerial photo, you could almost see that coming.

[Heeeeers Johnny]

13. Looks like some engineers fucked up

The sinkhole is in direct line with where a creek was diverted.
You can see it at the very top of the posted pic, but this one shows it better...

[img][/img]

If it's not a man made diversion (looks like it to me), someone still fucked up by not taking drainage and soil conditions into consideration.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

17. If you zoom out you can see that the side creek enters an underground water viaduct on the...

...opposite side of the freeway. Looks like the viaduct was compromised. Which does not bode well for the freeway, by the way.

[jberryhill]

33. You see that mall?

The culvert pre-dates the mall. The mall increased runoff:

http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/Collapsed-Culverts-History-343965612.html

[Takket]

14. drainage pipe collapsed

a new drainage pipe collapsed under the lot. likely whoever designed the pipe and backfill didn't properly account for the weight of the backfill, asphalt and cars sitting on top of the pipe.

big time lawsuit coming up on that one

[jberryhill]

32. The culvert was installed in 2001 - prior to building a mall on the other side of the highway

When they put in the pipe in 2001, they weren't expecting an IHOP on top of it. The mall increased runoff flow:

http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/Collapsed-Culverts-History-343965612.html

[Marrah_G]

18. Salt mines

I saw a documentary about this sort of thing a while back. Old mines are collapsing.

[kelliekat44]

21. And this in Maryland today...

Dozens of families in Lanham, Maryland, are displaced after something caused two apartment buildings to shift. Some residents described it feeling like an earthquake.

[MrWendel]

22. I remember not to long ago...

Florida had a rash of this stuff. Including the guy who died in bed swallowed up by a sinkhole. But this is obvious construction stupidity.

[Eleanors38]

25. Jaba the Hut is a snack to a Florida sinkhole.

[DFW]

23. So much for free parking....... n/t

[spanone]

26. looks like a poorly covered drainage ditch instead of a sinkhole

Last edited Mon Nov 9, 2015, 06:18 PM - Edit history (1)

no sinkhole...poor work

[jberryhill]

35. ,

[spanone]

37. collapsed drainage ditch.

[deathrind]

27. Wow...

That one person did get lucky...for the rest of the vehicles...it all comes down to being at the wrong place at the wrong time.