Clermont Sinkhole Swallows Resort Villa Near Disney World

A resort in Florida has started to fall into a sinkhole in Clermont.

According to Central Florida News, the sinkhole opened up on Sunday and swallowed one of the villas at Summer Bay Resort. The resort is just east of U.S. Highway 27, about 10 miles west of Disney World.

Paul Caldwell, the president of the Summer Bay Resort, said that emergency crews were called to the scene as the resort was evacuated. Caldwell also thanked security guard Richard Shanley for rescuing some guests from the building.

Shanley, a former volunteer firefighter, said that he did his best to keep everyone calm as he rushed people out of the building.

Shanley said: “It was just a lot of popping noise… The ceiling was coming down. I had to run literally from end to end to get people out. As you are running by, pieces of the ceiling are falling down behind you. So you just do what you can to take care of the situation at hand.”

The Clermont sinkhole is about 50 feet wide and is located at the center of the resort. No one was injured in the incident.

Caldwell said that the resort underwent a geological test about 15 years ago when it was built and that the tests showed that the ground was stable. The president of Summer Bay Resorts also said that there had been no signs of a sinkhole before the ground opened up on Sunday.

Caldwell said that the guests who lost their rooms to the sinkhole have been relocated and compensated for any belongings that they may have lost.

Maggie Ghamry, who was staying at the resort when the building collapsed, said: “Those two buildings have concaved into one another the archway is gone… Our floor is 50 feet underground. The whole side of the building we stayed in is gone, in chunks and pieces.”

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