Paul Easter, a Houston-based radio engineer, was having dinner Tuesday evening at Palm Coast’s Cracker Barrel when very suddenly, young diners at the other end of the dining room started screaming and streaming out of the restaurant.
They feared that sink hole was opening up beneath them.
“These two tables full of 20-somethings stood up started yelling and ran out of the restaurant,” Easter said. “I went over to look, and the floor was buckling, it wasn’t caving in, it was going up rather than down.”
“All the tile was splitting at the seams,” he said. But the sound of the crackling tiles, Easter said, was not as loud as the patrons’ screams.
The Palm Coast Fire Department was quickly at the scene–the incident was called in to the 911 center at 6:47 p.m., 911 notes indicate– and had everyone evacuated. The store manager turned off the gas connection. The 911 dispatcher reported that several individuals feared a sinkhole, but as it turned out that’s not what it was.
The fire department called in Palm Coast’s chief building official, a city spokesperson said today, “to determine whether it was being caused by a sinkhole or any other kind of natural disaster, and he responded and determined it not to be a natural disaster. So basically from our standpoint it did not involve any sort of public safety issue and it was really an issue for Cracker Barrel to deal with as far as their tile cracking.”
At 8:03 p.m., the building department “advised building safe to occupy,” according to dispatch notes, but the building was to reopen in Wednesday morning, not on Tuesday evening.
The company’s corporate office in Tennessee was contacted this morning and said it would respond to questions about the likely nature of the issue, but had not done so by late afternoon.
The restaurant itself was open for business this morning as normal, with plywood evenly fitted into the space where the tile had crackled, a space roughly about 10 by 6 feet, and tables placed on top of that for diners. It proved to be no impediment to diners or normal business.
Mad Max says
Millennial’s ……….anything to get out of paying for a meal !!!!
born and raised here says
Sounds to me like some of the boards from the floor was warped and buckling. With all the rain we have had I can see this happening.
THE VOICE OF REASON says
It’s been 35 years since I was a “20-something,” but I’m pretty sure even then I knew that a sinkhole makes the floor go down, not up.
DaveR says
So the county or city doesn’t know what caused this , is that how I read this ?
blondee says
@born and raised: All what rain? We’ve hardly had any rain all summer.
born and raised here says
We had a hurricane last week and got 6 inches of rain.
Hmmm says
Soooo…they either dont know what caused it or just isnt telling anybody? But deemed it safe and put plywood on the floor?!!! Yeah, can i sit at that table please!?
tile guy says
sounds like a tile issue and possibly a lack of soft or expansion joints in the tile plane. perhaps pressure from the adjoining walls pressing on tiles or some cracks in the substrate that made the weakest part (the tiled area) take up the movement causing the tiles to “tent”.
without eyes on the situation, it is only an educated guess on my part.
Native b says
The Indian spirits are pissed there on their land!
Terri Troolines says
Floriduh!
Sw says
A crack in the barrell