The Scary Natural Disaster That Forced This Hardee's Drive-Thru To Close

When it's storming like it's the end of the world outside or there's giant fissures opening up in the Earth, you probably aren't braving the storm to fulfill your craving for a 10-piece McNugget or a burrito box. When natural disasters strike, be it a storm, blizzard, or earthquake, fast-food places may either suffer a loss of profit or a line of customers seeking a form of hot meal (as this ABC 13 video of Texans lining up outside a Burger King drive-thru during a winter power outage shows). In most cases, though, expected and unexpected natural calamities alike cause significant damage to any fast-food spot just as any other place, and they may be forced to close until repairs or maintenance, leaving employees without vital pay and customers without food. 

Such is the case for one Pennsylvania Hardee's, where much like a hungry customer, the Earth opened its maw to swallow up not char-broiled beef burgers, but a good part of the restaurant itself. 

In York County, Pennsylvania, the local Hardee's is currently closed, due to a sinkhole opening up beneath the restaurant on August 18. While fortunately the sinkhole didn't cause any loss of life or injury to unsuspecting customers or staff, part of the drive-thru window collapsed into the newly-formed pit that opened just below it. According to York County Hardee's manager Tim James (via an interview with ABC 27), the sinkhole was originally nothing but a small dent in the road, but it became significantly worse following four inches of rain the previous week. 

Local building code officials deemed the restaurant unsafe and ordered it closed on August 19, while the township gave the restaurant an emergency order to stabilize a wall to prevent further damage (via PennLive). Unfortunately for both staff and customers in that area of York County, it's not clear when the Hardee's will reopen, if at all.

This isn't the first time sinkholes have caused the closure of a restaurant. In December 2020, Vegas Mexican restaurant Lindo Michoacan temporarily closed due to a sinkhole opening in the dining room (via Vegas Eater) and a similar incident occurred in Pineland, Texas in 2019 at a Dairy Queen, where a man's pickup nearly fell into a 12-foot sinkhole beneath the drive-thru window (via KJAS News).