NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The world-famous café and occasional shop Cafe du Monde was forced to shut abruptly on Friday afternoon (Dec. 13) together with other home improvement retailers in the French market resulting from what its owner described as a collapsing internal roof.
Cafe du Monde owner Jay Roman and the city of New Orleans denied earlier media reports of a partial roof collapse. Roman, who spoke to Fox 8 outside the French Quarter landmark, described the problem as “the attic where the wooden beams started cracking” resulting from age and weight.
Roman said engineers were already working to secure the damaged portion of the roof, but city inspectors, concerned about what they saw in the attic, ordered the building immediately closed.
“While working on the attic, the fire department out of an abundance of caution asked to close the building because it is one shared attic that runs from one end of the building to the other,” Roman said. “They were concerned that there might be a fire during construction, so they closed the building.”
City officials said in a statement: “Following an inspection by city officials and the New Orleans Fire Department, it was determined that there was no roof collapse. Café Du Monde management said that during renovations to the building, it was found that one of the supporting beams had caused the roof to slightly sag. The contractor is currently working on solving this problem. Café Du Monde management hopes to have the issue resolved by Saturday and will notify the public when business operations can resume.”
After the cafe and neighboring businesses were evacuated, the New Orleans Police and Fire Department responded to the scene. A fringe was taped off to maintain pedestrians out of the area from Cafe du Monde to Aunt Sally’s Pralines and the nearby Harley-Davidson store.
Roman said repairs are already underway and that Cafe du Monde expects to reopen on Saturday.
“We expect to be open tomorrow morning,” Roman said.
NOPD asked drivers to avoid the section of Decatur Street from St. if possible. Peter to Dumaine resulting from traffic delays in the area.
This developing story can be updated as more information becomes available.
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