Florida sinkhole swallows boat, two homes

MIAMI — A sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow in Florida swallowed a boat, destroyed two homes and prompted officials to evacuate residents from 10 other homes on Friday. Dramatic video showed the home, north of Tampa in Pasco County, collapsing into the hole on Friday morning. The hole quickly grew to 200 feet (60 metres) wide — about two-thirds the length of a football field — and 50 feet (15 metres) deep.

Pasco County Fire Chief Shawn Whited told reporters that no one was at the home when crews arrived just after 7:30 a.m. Someone had called about a “depression” under a boat parked in the backyard of a home in Lake Padgett Estates in Land O’Lakes. Within minutes, he said, “the hole opened up,” and the boat fell in. Firefighters were able to get two dogs out of the home and retrieve some belongings before the first home started collapsing into the quicklyexpanding hole. By early afternoon, the home next door also had been destroyed by the sinkhole.