Monday’s lunch crowd fills the Ringgold, Ga., McDonald’s on opening day just six month after a tornado ripped through the North Georgia town.
The McDonald’s in Ringgold sports a new facade Monday, opening day.
Workers search a McDonald’s restaurant in Ringgold, Ga. Thursday, April 28, 2011, after a tornado slammed into the area Wednesday. Seven people were killed in Georgia’s Catoosa County, including Ringgold, where a suspected tornado flattened about a dozen buildings and trapped an unknown number of people.Big Macs are back in Ringgold, Ga., more than six months after a tornado devastated the McDonald’s restaurant on Alabama Highway, laying waste to much of the city’s business district.
A hastily erected sign in May promised that happy meals would soon be back, and on Monday the company finally fulfilled its promise.
McDonald’s’ largest-sized restaurant seats 170 patrons, up from 90 customers in the previous building, and managers increased staff by 20 workers to 84, said Darlene McCannon, operations manager for the region.
About 40 of those workers were rehired at the restaurant after April’s tornadoes forced some employees to temporarily relocate to stores in Fort Oglethorpe, and Dalton, Ga.
“We wanted to make sure we brought it back the same or better,” McCannon said. “This is the biggest size, they don’t make them any bigger than this.”