Residents evacuated as hungry Florida sinkhole keeps growing
A Florida sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow has swallowed a boat and destroyed two homes, and prompted officials to evacuate residents from about a dozen homes yesterday.
Dramatic video showed the home in Land O’ Lakes, north of Tampa in Pasco County, collapsing into the hole. It quickly engulfed one home and a boat and then consumed about 80 per cent of another home, said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County’s assistant county administrator for public safety.
By yesterday, the hole stretched up to 76 metres wide and 15m deep, and was threatening to damage a third home, Guthrie said.
Pasco County Fire Chief Shawn Whited said no-one was home when crews responded to a call about a ‘‘depression’’ under a boat in the backyard of a house 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 house and retrieve some belongings before the building started collapsing into the quickly expanding hole. No injuries have been reported. Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said that within roughly 9m of the sinkhole, the ground was soft underfoot and felt like it was moving.
‘‘Walking down the street, you can see in people’s eyes the anxiety level. They’re fearful,’’ Nocco said.
Eleven homes have been evacuated, including the two that were destroyed.
County property records show there was a sinkhole at the property where the first house was swallowed up, and that it had been stabilised in 2014. The home was sold in 2015, according to records. Messages left for its owner were not immediately returned.
Sinkholes are stabilised by boring holes into the ground and injecting concrete.
Records also show that another sinkhole was stabilised at the partially destroyed home in 2007.
Two sisters renting that home with four other family members said they had left the house earlier in the day and returned to see their neighbour’s home falling into the sinkhole.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that Edilia and Theresa Villa and their relatives had time to retrieve important documents and six dogs from their home before officials declared it unsafe.
Theresa Villa’s 15-year-old daughter, Thalia Chapman, told the newspaper the family moved into the house after arriving in the United States from Cuba about a decade ago.
The American Red Cross is assisting residents who have been displaced.
Guthrie said he was concerned that if the sinkhole continued to grow, it would damage septic tanks, and that this could pollute a nearby lake.