Sinkhole Near Walt Disney World Swallows Resort, Forces Guests To Evacuate

A sinkhole near Walt Disney World caused two condos to collapse and has forced dozens of guests to evacuate.

Guests in the Summer Bay Resort started to hear popping noises late on Sunday as the ground beneath the condos started to give way and the property began to sink. A spokesman for the Lake County Fire Department said all guests were able to evacuate in time and there were no injuries reported from the sinkhole.

Paul Caldwell, the president of the resort, said he got a call at close to 10:30 pm on Sunday from staff members telling him that the 15-year-old building was being taken down into a sinkhole.

“My heart sunk. I was sick to my stomach,” Caldwell said.”Everybody was cleared out of the buildings, so nobody got hurt.”

Though no one was hurt, guests caught up in the Walt Disney World sinkhole had to leave so quickly that many left behind valuables and medications. Officials said the guests had about 10 minutes to leave the resort, and, if it had taken any longer, there would have likely been injuries.

WItnesses said windows began breaking across the resort, and one guest was sitting in a bathtub when it started to levitate. Another couple with an infant even had to break their way through a room window when their door frame collapsed.

Aerial video taken in the aftermath of the sinkhole showed a building sheered in half as it sank into a deep depression in the ground. Trees along the edges of the sinkhole were at an angle as they too were sucked into the sinking earth.

The sinkhole measured about 50 feet in diameter and sank close to 15 feet deep. Officials said on Monday they believe it could be growing deeper but can’t tell if it’s also spreading outward to nearby buildings.

Dozens of guests displaced by the sinkhole near Walt Disney World have been moved to other buildings on the property.