Crunchy's is a restaurant right at the edge of the evacuation zone, but it had to close its doors like everyone else Monday morning.
"We've had to tell quite a few people that they couldn't come in for lunch," says Ellen Leonard, a manager at Crunchy's.
Crunchy's was one of several businesses that had to close after construction crews hit a gas main.
"It produced a pretty sizable gas leak here in the downtown area," says Leo Allaire of the East Lansing Fire Department.
The leak shut down parts of Grand River Avenue and Abbot Road, as well as Evergreen Ave. and Albert Ave. In addition to closing those roads, the East Lansing Fire Department and police had to evacuate around the leak.
"300 yards around the immediate area, everybody was evacuated," says Allaire.
The evacuation pushed Leonard to let her employees go home.
"I told staff that they could leave," Leonard explains, "but they had to be back just kind of on-call."
Leonard wasn't the only one who had to send people home. Michigan State University evacuated the West Circle Complex which includes five dorms.
The People's Church pre-school is right next door to the break. When they were told there was no timetable for when they would get back inside, they had to ask parents to come pick up their kids.
But less than 30 minutes later, the leak was contained by Consumers Energy crews. And once the leak stopped nearby buildings could reopen and the roads that were closed down opened up to traffic.
The East Lansing fire department says the situation was handled well.
"Everything went well," says Allaire, "nobody got hurt and obviously the gas line didn't catch on fire."
That line will be retired according to Consumers Energy.
