Sinkholes threaten to swallow up Florida homes and people

A massive sinkhole opened up in a Florida front lawn over the weekend and is now threatening to consume several Tampa-area homes.

The gaping crater measuring 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep appeared in Spring Hill, located about 50 miles north of Tampa, and comes little more than a year after a similar sinkhole swallowed a Tampa man while he slept.

Linda Fisher — who was out of town when ground crumbled away near her home — returned Sunday to retrieve her belongings, including her cat, before evacuating.

City officials were scheduled to survey the site Monday to determine if her neighbors' homes are safe.

"It's devastating," Fisher, 64, told WTSP-TV. "You don't expect it."

Perhaps she should have. Sinkholes like the one that partially swallowed Fisher's street and front yard are common in the Sunshine State.

In March 2013, a 30-foot wide, 20-foot deep sinkhole near Tampa swallowed 36-year-old Jeff Bush as he slept in his bed. His body was never recovered.

Original Quill wrote:Saw that.  They are filling it in with tons and tons of concrete.

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Saw that.  They are filling it in with tons and tons of concrete.

I'm sure that sounds like a good idea at the present time

Original Quill wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Saw that.  They are filling it in with tons and tons of concrete.

I'm sure that sounds like a good idea at the present time

My thoughts exactly.  Just when they fill the sucker in,  erm, another one opens up across the street.  Lol.

Quick!  Bring back the cement truck.

veya_victaous wrote:@ben
that is not a theory       fairly sure that has been proven beyond doubt

but sinkholes
Scary huh....  we have been getting a few down here too   

Mount Gambier is one of a very small handful of places in the world with the soft limestone bedrock that creates deep, circular, spectacular sinkholes like the ones found in Mexico and Florida.

Beneath the regional centre of Mount Gambier is a myriad of caves. According to Aussie geologist and sinkhole buff, Ian Lewis, the only things keeping them from collapsing are the dry conditions and relatively stable water table.

“Mount Gambier only has a population of 20,000, but if you built a city there with a few million people, it would be the next Florida," Lewis said.

In addition to southern Australia’s Limestone Coast, the northern suburbs of Perth, parts of Canberra, Newcastle, the Nullarbor Plain and western NSW have have seen sinkholes appear in recent years.

Australia’s largest sinkhole has a lake at its floor and it is a popular tourist attraction, but our diving expedition to the bottom of two at Ewen's Ponds and Piccaninnie Ponds, which no one has ever been to the bottom of, revealed the caves that could be the next sinkholes waiting to happen
Bechtel explained to Sunday Night that if your home happens to be built over limestone, beneath it the ground will be “like Swiss cheese” and riddled with caves. Groundwater dissolves the limestone until, in the right conditions, all it takes is heavy rain or a faulty sewer to trigger a dramatic and dangerous sinkhole.

“A sinkhole is basically a hole underneath the ground that is slowly eating its way up. The roof gets higher and higher until the weight of someone walking over the top or a truck driving over collapses the roof.

"That vertical tunnel has probably been eating its way up for days, if not months or years.”

He also believes human activity is causing more sinkholes than ever before. In the right conditions something as simple as urban drainage, that concentrates water runoff in one place rather than dispersing it, can cause a sinkhole.

“Sinkholes happen naturally but very, very rarely. Without humans around, one sinkhole may occur in a lifetime," Bechtel said.

"It’s scientifically fascinating, but from a human standpoint it is very much a tragedy. I think people have a right to be very nervous. There are going to be a lot more catastrophic sinkholes.”

Ben_Reilly wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:@ben
that is not a theory       fairly sure that has been proven beyond doubt

but sinkholes
Scary huh....  we have been getting a few down here too   

Let me hazard a guess that it's mainly happening closer to the ocean? Which is in no way rising, according to our friends on the right side of the aisle?

Ben_Reilly wrote:

A massive sinkhole opened up in a Florida front lawn over the weekend and is now threatening to consume several Tampa-area homes.

The gaping crater measuring 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep appeared in Spring Hill, located about 50 miles north of Tampa, and comes little more than a year after a similar sinkhole swallowed a Tampa man while he slept.

Linda Fisher — who was out of town when ground crumbled away near her home — returned Sunday to retrieve her belongings, including her cat, before evacuating.

City officials were scheduled to survey the site Monday to determine if her neighbors' homes are safe.

"It's devastating," Fisher, 64, told WTSP-TV. "You don't expect it."

Perhaps she should have. Sinkholes like the one that partially swallowed Fisher's street and front yard are common in the Sunshine State.

In March 2013, a 30-foot wide, 20-foot deep sinkhole near Tampa swallowed 36-year-old Jeff Bush as he slept in his bed. His body was never recovered.

http://news.yahoo.com/sinkhole-florida-spring-hill-173832870.html

Ben_Reilly wrote:So glad I live in Texas, where the only fear is your brain baking inside your skull from the heat or being whisked away by a pesky tornado...