Jackson Jambalaya

Dear IHOP construction contractor's insurer, please make your check payable to IHOP Franchisee Meridian, MS (or his/her creditors) and its attorneys. Please insert the following in the memo line: "Damages proximately caused by negligent preparation of foundation."

It wasn't a sinkhole

Not a sinkhole at all. A sinkhole is a cavity in the ground, especially in limestone bedrock, caused by water erosion and providing a route for surface water to disappear underground. there was no limestone, and this erosion came from below. It was not a route for surface water to disappear underground.

The collapse is the area where a large culvert (18ft X 20ft)was installed by the city about 15 years ago. The easement stated that the city was responsible for installation and maintenance. Sad thing is, most of these people only had liability insurance on their vehicles, and nobody wants to take responsibility for the damage."Cough....City of Meridian....Cough" Best part was one car didn't fall in, until the city tried to remove it with a forklift! Your tax dollars at work!

The easement stated that the city was responsible for installation and maintenance.


The IHOP was newly constructed and had been open for less than a week when the collapse happened. Highly possible that a mistake or two were made during the construction process and wallah! Someone has a big problem. Could be the city, could be someone else, could be shared blame. Could be a total coincidence having nothing to do with the construction too.

Somebody should write a Blues song about this incident.

"I got the Queen City Sinkhole Blues."

Defective culvert and/or bad soil used to backfill during construction.

There was an old metal storm drain, not a concrete culvert, as could be seen in at least one photo on television. It was clearly mashed into a U shape.

It's likely been there for a very long time.

Finding out whether or not IHOP was advised it was there and if not, who should have advised them it was there, will be interesting and probably a matter of dispute.

This is why engineering firms have errors and omissions insurance. Sloppy engineering. Luckily, nobody was killed.

/warlock is happy he didn't do this. I would love to know who signed off on it.

The metal culvert is what collapsed, at the time it was the largest metal culvert ever installed in Mississippi. I was there when it was installed 15 years ago. At the time, the property was a Lincoln dealership. It was installed to alleviate flooding from the south side of the interstate after Bonita Lakes Mall opened. The area where the mall was built, was previously all trees. The runoff from the mall necessitated a larger drain

@2:00
Thank you for the facts! They make a lot more sense than anything that has been hyped by the news media.

Before you blowhards start slamming the contractor, why don't you check Google Earth and the historical photos for this location? The site is level and you can surmise exactly where the existing culvert is located.

Dear 9:25: Were you born stupid or did you work really hard to perfect the talent? The area that collapsed was NOT the IHOP foundation. It was an adjacent parking area. But, thanks for playing........