JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — Crews in Jefferson City are working to repair three large sink holes that formed over the weekend all within a mile of each other.
It happened along 11-E highway and Broadway. One swallowed a car behind the Gondolier Italian Restaurant, another opened on the highway and a third one developed under a donut shop nearby.
"You kinda feel like the whole city block is in danger right now, but we're still standing here," Gondolier server Yvette Hughey laughed. "Say prayers for us out here in Jefferson County, we're trying not to all fall in the ground!"
The giant sink hole in the back parking lot of the Gondolier Restaurant has only gotten bigger since it opened up on Saturday.
A picture shows the moments before the head cook's parked SUV took a tumble into the ground. Luckily, no one was hurt.
"He tried to save it, but there was no saving it and it just swallowed it right up," Hughey explained. "Turned it upside down and swallowed it down in the hole."
Debris and dirt covered the car Monday and while that cook waits for it to be pulled out, he's riding his bike to work.
"Insurance doesn't really cover a sinkhole swallowing your truck, so it will take the family pulling together to help him out," Hughey said, referencing the Gondolier restaurant employee family.
This wasn't the only cavernous hole in the city, though, two more opened up within the same block of the restaurant within 24 hours.
One on the main road that TDOT filled in, another mostly underground at the new donut shop down the road.
Jimmy Carmichael, the owner of Carmichael Excavation and the head over the repairs, said gaping holes in the ground are not new for Jefferson County but are getting worse.
"I’ve worked on them since the 80s," Carmichael explained. "It happens a lot more common now than it used to because we're getting a lot more rain."
He said this happens so much there because of mines underneath, mixed with heat and water buildup on top of limestone and soil.
"Just like a wet mop," Carmichael explained. "And the heavier it gets, sooner or later it can't hold itself up and it falls."
For now, the restaurants will stay closed and pray they're not swallowed whole. Gondolier can't reopen until its gas line is fixed. The sinkhole broke it.
Crews predict it will take a few days to fill the holes. It will take dozens of loads of concrete and soil filler to get the job done.