A sinkhole has swallowed two homes in a Land O’Lakes community in Florida, and it’s closed down a neighborhood with concerns of it growing. As of Sunday morning, it looks as though it may have stabilized, but for now, people who live in the immediate area are not allowed back in their homes. This sink hole started as a small depression in a back yard, but as it continued, homes were gone.
One unnamed homeowner spoke with Fox News , and she gave a blow by blow description of the rooms in her home being devoured by this sinkhole. One by one the rooms of her home dropped into the abyss, and there wasn’t a thing anyone could do about it. One resident described how the rooms in her house just started to collapse, saying her, “kitchen, bedroom, bathroom… gone.”
According to ABC Action News , the stories of rescues coming from this sinkhole event include firefighters rescuing two dogs from one of the homes just before it collapsed into the sinkhole and deputies helping an elderly woman with a walker evacuate her home.
The crackling noise of the houses as they starting to cave in was the first sound heard by Zamira Rodrigues and her family who were at home when the sinkhole opened up. The sound was coming from her neighbor’s home, she said it sounded as if a building was coming down.
The area is being treated as a hazmat situation due to the sewage that has also flowed into the sinkhole due to the collapse of the ground causing septic tank damage. Initial concerns were that the sinkhole would merge into the lake nearby, but as of Sunday morning, the sinkhole appears to have stabilized with no growth noted since Saturday.
The first call about the sinkhole came into the police department at about 7:30 on Friday morning. The sinkhole was described as a depression in the ground at first. This was noted behind a home at 21825 Ocean Pines Drive. As the sinkhole progressed, it was this home and another home at 21835 Ocean Pines Drive that fell victim to this event by Mother Nature, and they are now completely gone, swallowed by the sinkhole.
Several homes evacuated and/or damaged after sinkhole appears in Land O’ Lakes pic.twitter.com/K8njQ3RQMp
— Andrea Lyon ? (@andrealyonnews) July 14, 2017
A good portion of the neighborhood had been evacuated, but most of the people have now been allowed back home. As of Saturday, there were still five homes in the immediate vicinity of the sinkhole that the homeowners were still not allowed to enter.
This area could take months to stabilize and clean up the damage caused by Mother Nature in this event, according to authorities in the Land O’ Lakes community.
Devastating. Sky10 over large sinkhole in Land O’ Lakes that continues to grow. 11 homes evacuated. 225-250 ft wide by approx 50 ft deep. pic.twitter.com/HJkEdesmu2
— Ian Reitz (@IanReitz) July 14, 2017
[Featured Image by A Katz/Shutterstock]
