MERIDIAN, Miss. — Mississippi officials on Monday cited the “catastrophic failure” of an underground concrete storm water culvert as the culprit in the Saturday night collapse of a section of the parking lot outside an International House Of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurant that swallowed at least 14 vehicles and gained national media attention.

Following a tour of the site Monday, Meridian, Mississippi Mayor Percy Bland declared a state of emergency, which will allow the city to bring in outside engineering experts to shore up the site and expedite the removal of the vehicles from the gash in the parking lot, which is about 50 feet wide, 360 feet long and 30 feet deep.

Bland’s assistant, Richie McAlister, said a concrete storm water culvert 18-feet-deep and 27-feet-wide that ran the length of the gash in the parking lot failed, causing the earth above and parking lot to collapse. 

The culvert, buried beneath the dirt, asphalt and vehicles, was not visible from the parking lot. 

McAlister said the culvert is the largest of its type in the state of Mississippi and there has no prior problems with it since it was constructed in the late 1990s. The culvert is owned by the city, which will be responsible for repairs.

Bland and other officials, attorneys and engineers from the city met Sunday night with IHOP owners to determine the next steps in dealing with the collapse.

Emergency crews were called to the IHOP restaurant Saturday evening and discovered that a section of the parking lot had collapsed.

No one was inside any of the vehicles at the time and there were no injuries.

Sunday, officials said 12 vehicles had tumbled into the fissure. Monday, officials said there were at least 14 vehicles visible that included 10 cars, three SUVs and a pickup truck.

Stewart writes for The Meridian (Mississippi) Star.