SEATTLE — A Lake City woman is frantically trying to save her business after a sinkhole formed on the property.
The sinkhole formed more than a year ago at the gas station just a couple hundred feet away from the coffee stand Kelly Cannoli.
“A truck was just getting gas," said Kelly Wilson, owner of Kelly Cannoli. "He felt the ground start to shake and he just ran. He didn’t know what was happening. He just ran, and all of a sudden a giant sinkhole just opened and swallowed his truck."
Wilson's business was far enough away to remain open and serve customers until recently.
“It sat there for a year, the truck just hanging out," Wilson said. "They finally just got it out and then now a second sinkhole opened, and you can see the top of the gas station is like slanted like the whole thing is about to collapse.”
Wilson rents the coffee stand, and the owners decided to demolish the structure on the property after the second sinkhole formed.
Kelly Cannoli must be out by April.
“Three months sounds like a long time but it’s not because I need to get health permits," Wilson said. "Everything has to go through the city. I don’t want to be closed for one day. I don’t want to lose any customers because I’m not open here or down the street."
Wilson found a new location three blocks down the road but needs a new coffee trailer to operate out of.
“The trailer that we found is $45,000 and so I’m trying to raise money for that,” Wilson said. “We survived the pandemic; we can survive this one.”
Wilson set up an online fundraising page to help meet her $45,000 goal to buy the new trailer and keep her business up and running with the same customer base she’s grown to know in Lake City.