BURIED ALIVE
Jeff met a terrible end when a sinkhole swallowed his home
In February 2013, Jeremy Bush had just returned to his Florida home after a long day at work and was preparing to eat dinner. Suddenly he heard a terrible noise that turned his blood cold.
One of the rooms in his house had collapsed into a massive sinkhole, dragging his sleeping brother, Jeff, out of sight and into a dark pit of earth and rock.
‘I ran to Jeff’s room, and when I opened the door there was no floor,’ says Jeremy. ‘Everything was gone. I heard him screaming for help, so I jumped in the hole and I was digging with my hands, but there was nothing I could do.’
The US state of Florida is a well-known hotspot for sinkholes and the emergency services were on hand within minutes, yet despite their best efforts, they could not save Jeff.
‘The police pulled me out of the sinkhole when they arrived,’ explained Jeremy. ‘Then they sent in special equipment to try and find Jeff, but the sinkhole kept growing and swallowed all their gear. After that, there was nothing anyone could do. Jeff was buried alive.’
Jeremy’s terrible story is just one of the tales featured in this new three-part series about a natural phenomenon that has been on the rise in recent years. But sinkholes aren’t just an American problem and this week’s first episode also visits Hemel Hempstead and Ripon in Yorkshire, which have also been affected.
‘I’ll never get over what happened to Jeff but it could have been so much worse,’ says Jeremy. ‘It could have been all of us that died, but luckily the rest of my family survived.’