TAMPA, Fla. (WTSP) – The sinkhole that swallowed a Toyota Camry is continuing to grow, officials tell 10 Connects.

At last measurement it was 22 feet by 24 feet and 17 feet to the dirt on the bottom. The depth does not take into account where the Camry is, in fact, no one is quite sure how deep the car is.

The rear end of the car was completely covered by dirt by late last night.

Hillsborough County Code Enforcement officials tell 10 Connects the sinkhole does not appear to be directly impacting the structure of the Bordeaux Village condos on N. 50th Street, however it has grown to the staircase of the building.

Code enforcement was back out at the complex on Monday, assessing damage to the building.

Several families were evacuated from the row of condos after it was deemed unsafe.

Robin Caton, with Hillsborough Code Enforcement, says they will not allow anyone to move back in until an engineer determines the sinkhole has been stabilized and the building is safe.

The Red Cross has been assisting the families who were forced out by finding them hotel rooms for the next few days.

Caton says engineers hired by the property managers will determine how to fix the sinkhole and whether it makes sense to remove the car.

Vibrations in the ground could make the situation worse, sinkhole exerts say.

Caton says they have spoken to people who live in the neighborhoods near the complex, alerting them to the sinkhole and what they need to look out for in case a sinkhole develops on their property.

Calls to the Bordeaux Village management were not returned as of Monday afternoon.

via Giant Sinkhole Swallows Car | WUSA9.com | Washington, DC |.

The now-world-famous Guatemala City sinkhole, which opened following a recent tropical storm, is estimated to be 66 feet wide, 100 feet deep, and perfectly cylindrical in shape. It must be seen to be believed. Here are five amazing facts about the sinkhole and, as a bonus at the bottom, three not-so-amazing “facts.”

Might Still Get Bigger Politics Daily's Carl Franzen warns the sinkhole may be “increasing in size and appetite.” He writes, “The phenomenon of rapidly growing sinkholes is well documented, but the Guatemala case stands out precisely because the sinkhole is so enormous and in such an inconvenient location, at a major intersection. The sinkhole's potential growth is also problematic for repair efforts, as no work can be begun safely until the sinkhole has reached an equilibrium and stops…well, sinking, which could take up to several more days.”

Could Be Caused by Sped-Up Geological Erosion Geologists David Bercovici and Mark Brandon tell Vanity Fair, “Sinkholes often appear in areas where the rock below the ground is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can be naturally dissolved by circulating ground water. As the sediment dissolves, caves and air pockets develop underneath the land surface. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces, then the ground collapses and results in a sinkhole. Natural depressions that collect water and man-made structures such as houses and streets with poor drainage are especially vulnerable to sinkholes. Heavy rainfall, like that from Tropical Storm Agatha, only accelerates the process.”

Sewer System May Be to Blame The Christian Science Monitor's Sara Miller Llana reports, “The mayor Guatemala City, Álvaro Arzú, said there may be a relationship between the sinkhole and the city's 36-year old drainage system that runs 50-60 meters below the surface. He said, according to 21st Century, a Guatemala daily newspaper, that the country's disaster response agency, CONRED, is using an X-ray like machine to study the earth in the area of the sinkhole.” Other reports cite “sewer or municipal water lines [that] might have eroded the ground and led to the collapse.”

This Has Happened Before The Christian Science Monitor's Ezra Fieser recounts, “In 2007, three people were killed when a 100-foot deep sinkhole opened in another Guatemala City neighborhood. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from the area.” Carl Franzen adds, “Just last month, a sinkhole opened in Quebec swallowing an entire house and killing the family inside. In the U.S., they are most common in the southern states, particularly Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida, where hundreds of smaller sinkholes have already been reported this year alone.”

How We Can Fix It Politics Daily's Carl Franzen explains three options. (1) Excavate and Filter; (2) Remediate and Cap Grout; (3) Underpin. That last one comes from “Sinkhole attorneys Marshall Thomas Burnett, a firm specializing in filing claims for those whose properties are affected by the appearance of sinkholes.” Click through for descriptions of each process.

3 Not-So-Amazing Sinkhole 'Facts'

You Can Throw Stuff in It Death and Taxes blogger Matt Kiebus helpfully contributes “fun stuff to toss in” the sinkhole. His 12-item list includes such throwables as Miller Lite bottles and BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Sinkhole Has Biblical Precedent BeliefNet's Mark Herringshaw quotes Psalm 46:2: “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” To be fair, Herringshaw also urges prayer for the victims of the sinkhole as well as the tropical storm that caused it.

The Best Car to Jump a Sinkhole Car blog Jalopnik's Matt Hardigree asks, “Assuming you were airlifted in to the country with a vehicle of your choice — what would you take and what would your strategy be for avoiding death?” His answer: “Personally, I'd pick a Caterham R500 to traverse the dangerous streets of Guatemala City. The insane 2.0-liter Ford-powered roadster has classic Caterham agility to avoid sinkholes, 520 hp-per-ton power to speed away from an earth opening beneath your feet, a low 1,115-lb weight to help leap over any obstacles, and an open roof in case you can't do any of those things and need to bail in a hurry.”

via 5 Amazing Facts About the Guatemala City Sinkhole | The Atlantic Wire.

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Gobierno de Guatemala/FlickrThe now-world-famous Guatemala City sinkhole, which opened following a recent tropical storm, is estimated to be 66 feet wide, 100 feet deep, and perfectly cylindrical in shape. It must be seen to be believed. Here are five amazing facts about the sinkhole and, as a bonus at the bottom, three not-so-amazing “facts.”

• Might Still Get Bigger Politics Daily’s Carl Franzen warnsthe sinkhole may be “increasing in size and appetite.” He writes, “The phenomenon of rapidly growing sinkholes is well documented, but the Guatemala case stands out precisely because the sinkhole is so enormous and in such an inconvenient location, at a major intersection. The sinkhole’s potential growth is also problematic for repair efforts, as no work can be begun safely until the sinkhole has reached an equilibrium and stops…well, sinking, which could take up to several more days.”

• Could Be Caused by Sped-Up Geological Erosion Geologists David Bercovici and Mark Brandon tell Vanity Fair, “Sinkholes often appear in areas where the rock below the ground is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can be naturally dissolved by circulating ground water. As the sediment dissolves, caves and air pockets develop underneath the land surface. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces, then the ground collapses and results in a sinkhole. Natural depressions that collect water and man-made structures such as houses and streets with poor drainage are especially vulnerable to sinkholes. Heavy rainfall, like that from Tropical Storm Agatha, only accelerates the process.”

• Sewer System May Be to Blame The Christian Science Monitor’s Sara Miller Llana reports, “The mayor Guatemala City, Álvaro Arzú, said there may be a relationship between the sinkhole and the city’s 36-year old drainage system that runs 50-60 meters below the surface. He said, according to 21st Century, a Guatemala daily newspaper, that the country’s disaster response agency, CONRED, is using an X-ray like machine to study the earth in the area of the sinkhole.” Other reports cite “sewer or municipal water lines [that] might have eroded the ground and led to the collapse.”

• This Has Happened Before The Christian Science Monitor’s Ezra Fieser recounts, “In 2007, three people were killed when a 100-foot deep sinkhole opened in another Guatemala City neighborhood. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from the area.” Carl Franzen adds, “Just last month, asinkhole opened in Quebec swallowing an entire house and killing the family inside. In the U.S., they are most common in the southern states, particularly Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida, where hundreds of smaller sinkholes have already been reported this year alone.”

• How We Can Fix It Politics Daily’s Carl Franzen explains three options. (1) Excavate and Filter; (2) Remediate and Cap Grout; (3) Underpin. That last one comes from “Sinkhole attorneys Marshall Thomas Burnett, a firm specializing in filing claims for those whose properties are affected by the appearance of sinkholes.” Click through for descriptions of each process.

3 Not-So-Amazing Sinkhole ‘Facts’

• You Can Throw Stuff in It Death and Taxes blogger Matt Kiebus helpfully contributes “fun stuff to toss in” the sinkhole. His 12-item list includes such throwables as Miller Lite bottles and BP CEO Tony Hayward.

• Sinkhole Has Biblical Precedent BeliefNet’s Mark Herringshaw quotes Psalm 46:2: “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” To be fair, Herringshaw also urges prayer for the victims of the sinkhole as well as the tropical storm that caused it.

• The Best Car to Jump a Sinkhole Car blog Jalopnik’s Matt Hardigree asks, “Assuming you were airlifted in to the country with a vehicle of your choice — what would you take and what would your strategy be for avoiding death?” His answer: “Personally, I’d pick a Caterham R500 to traverse the dangerous streets of Guatemala City. The insane 2.0-liter Ford-powered roadster has classic Caterham agility to avoid sinkholes, 520 hp-per-ton power to speed away from an earth opening beneath your feet, a low 1,115-lb weight to help leap over any obstacles, and an open roof in case you can’t do any of those things and need to bail in a hurry.”

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Crazy pictures available here.

The death toll in Guatemala due to landslides caused by tropical storm “Agatha” has risen to 93, according to an official count. Forty-nine victims were buried by a landslide in the department of Chimaltenango, about 40 miles west of the capital city. It is feared that more people will be found dead in remote villages that cling to sides of mountains and in precarious barrancos.

The storm swept into Central America and southern Mexico over the May 29-30 weekend, affecting Guatemala most severely but also neighboring El Salvador and Honduras. All told, at least 113 people are dead in the Central American isthmus and at least 50 people are reported missing in Guatemala alone. In one case, a Guatemalan family lost all four of their children to a mudslide triggered by the storm. Nine people were confirmed killed in El Salvador and 12 in Honduras.

However, according to an unofficial count the dead were at least 200. The tropical storm immediately followed an eruption of a volcano named Pacaya near Guatemala City, which spewed hot rocks and sand while lava flows sent families fleeing for their lives. Villages on the edge of the volcano have evacuated as residents are still pouring into make-shift shelters and centers set up by the national government. Residents fear that their few possessions will be pilfered by robbers emboldened by the chaos.

From Caritas Guatemala, a Catholic charitable organization, is providing aid to families stricken by the dual disaster. President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala has said that the government’s emergency response is designed to provide aid to survivors of landslides and mudslides, as well as to thousands homeless. The President reported that the government’s action proceeds by assigning priority to the communities most in need.

The latest report on damages and casualties announced that 74,777 people have fled their homes, 17,101 have found accommodation at 123 hostels, 2,912 homes are damaged, and there are very serious damages reported in 842 cases. President Colom announced that most of the country’s roads are damaged or blocked, keeping aid from reaching communities, although the Civil Aeronautics authorized flights of helicopters and airplanes that do not use turbines. The international airport at Guatemala City was closed as of May 31.

In downtown Guatemala City and Chimaltenango, the intense rains and poor drainage system have caused immense sink holes to appear. In one case in Guatemala City, a three storey building was swallowed up completely by the maw of a 180-foot deep sink hole, taking the life of at least one person. The sink hole is 90 feet wide. The bottom of the sink hole is not visible from its edge. A similar sinkhole appeared in 2007 in a nearby neighborhood and is also attributed to the city’s antiquated drainage system and the limestone geology of the area.

A team of Cuban doctors for several years offering their services to the rural population and the support of U.S. helicopters are some of the first aid received from the international community in the emergency, President Colom said. Caritas Guatemala has started collecting food items and funds to assist victims.

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SAINT-JUDE, Quebec – All four members of a family missing in a farmhouse swallowed up by a landslide northeast of Montreal were found dead, CBC reported Tuesday.

“They were found very close to one another, some of the lying on the couch in the family room in the basement, where we were told that they’d be,” said Michel C. Doré, Quebec’s associate deputy public security minister, who was on the scene.

The Saint-Jude home was swept away after the land beneath their home gave way on Monday night. Saint-Jude is a town of 1,000 residents north of St-Hyacinthe near the Yamaska River.

“It’s a pretty gigantic crater,” said Francois Gregoire, a Quebec fire department spokesman. “It’s hard imagining something like this. It’s pretty impressive.”

Gregoire said the house was quite far from the river before the land gave way but that part of it ended up in the water.

He said three cars in front of the house were swept away, as was part of a nearby road.

Sinkholes can occur when water undermines an area of land or when rock below the land surface shift.

Earlier, rescuers were able to get to the collapsed house, but could not locate the missing man and a woman in their 40s and their children, aged about 9 and 11.

Quebec provincial police spokesman Ronald McInnis said firefighters got into the house but had to retreat when it started moving again.

“Then other firefighters from St. Hyacinthe came, got into the house and the same thing happened, so they also got out,” he said.

Soil scientists later arrived on the scene to determine if the ground was stable enough for rescuers to re-enter the home, he said.

Mayor Yves Bellefeuille said the community is in shock, especially since the home is not in an area considered to be at risk.

Police said at least five other houses have been evacuated in the area, affecting about 20 people. Police have closed a stretch of a secondary road where the houses are located.

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A fishing trip turned to tragedy for two young men in Queens when they both suddenly got into trouble in the water.

Fox 5′s Rob Malcolm was on the scene (watch the video, left).

Police say the body of a male was found Sunday afternoon by search and rescue crews in Jamaica Bay.

Police have not released the identity of the male who was pulled from the water.

The Coast Guard, FDNY, and NYPD rescue crews had been on scene searching for a missing 19-year-old fisherman Sunday afternoon.

The Coast Guard received a call that two fishermen were in distress and possibly pulled into a sinkhole.

The Coast Guard says rescuers pulled one of the men out. He was taken to a nearby hospital.

The men were fishing near the North Channel Bridge. They were reportedly fishing in waist high water when one of them was pulled into the sink hole. The other attempted to help him, and was also pulled into the sink hole.

The rescued fisherman was taken to a local hospital. No word on his condition.

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Sinkhole opens up, traps person on Seattle waterfront

 

 

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A man was rescued Thursday morning by firefighters after he tumbled into a 10-foot-deep hole that opened up in the sidewalk along Seattle’s downtown waterfront, one of the city’s most popular promenades and tourist attractions.The 60-year-old man reported minor back pain and was taken to Harborview Medical Center to be examined, Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen said.

The sidewalk, atop the deteriorating sea wall that separates Alaskan Way from Elliott Bay, is at the southern end of a walkway strolled by thousands of people daily. City officials have long urged that the sea wall be fixed, and a new wall is planned as part of a $4.2 billion project to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct with a tunnel by 2015.

The hole, about 2 to 4 feet wide and 7 feet long, opened up without warning about 8 a.m. at a small park at the foot of South Washington Street in the city’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood. The park is just south of the Washington State Ferries terminal that links downtown Seattle with the west side of Puget Sound.

In the mid-19th century, the land beneath the sidewalk was mud flats and near a sawmill at the foot of Skid Road, the one-time path where logs were skidded downhill and that later became a generic term for down-and-out neighborhoods.

Vander Houwen said 26 firefighters worked to rescue the man, blocking heavily used Alaskan Way during the morning rush hour.

There was a hollow space beneath where the 4-inch-thick sidewalk gave way, she said. “He was trapped by some of his clothing and backpack.”

The man cut off a sleeve that was snagged in the hole as firefighters drilled bolts into nearby concrete, fastened ropes to the bolts and lowered pieces of wood and inflatable air bags to stabilize the soil.

Ladders were extended across the opening, and the man was placed into a harness and pulled to the surface after about an hour, Vander Houwen said.

The walkway will remain closed to pedestrians until it can be further examined, she said.

In late 2005, Mayor Greg Nickels said small marine creatures were boring through the sea wall so rapidly that city divers had to increase the frequency of inspections of the wood and steel structure to twice a year.

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2 men fished from Tampa sinkhole

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TAMPA, Fla. – Hillsborough County Fire Rescue says two men who fell into a sinkhole were taken to a Tampa hospital with minor injuries.

Firefighters pulled the men from the sinkhole Thursday night. It was the second sinkhole incident in the area in two weeks.

Last week, a Tampa-area home was nearly entirely swallowed by a sinkhole that was almost 15 feet deep. The sinkhole opened under the home of Jim and Joan Bates in Spring Hill on Wednesday afternoon and the garage and front of the ranch was devoured.

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Sinkholes Threaten Clarksville Homes

14-Foot Hole Threatens House’s Foundation

Reported by Alan Frio

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Some Middle Tennessee neighborhoods have been dealing with flooding issues after repeated storms this month.

 

Video: Massive Sinkholes Threaten Homes

 

One Clarksville neighborhood not only had high water, but massive sinkholes are threatening their homes. 

After heavy rains fell on Saturday morning, Rick Thomas of Monterey Place spotted a 14-foot deep hole on the side of his house that is threatening his home’s foundation

“It leaves you kind of numb,” said Thomas.

 

On the same day, Thomas found another sinkhole in the front of his home. He said this is something he has been dealing with for the last 22 years. 

Thomas is not the only one in the neighborhood with sinkhole problems, there are depressions in the ground everywhere in the area. Three other homeowners said they have sinkholes. 

Ivy Roberts’ property is right next door to Thomas, and she has the same problems. 

Roberts bought her home 10 months ago and said she was never told of the sinkhole problems in this neighborhood. 

“We took all the money we had and bought this home because we lost our other home in east Tennessee by fire. We got the money for the house, came here and bought this, and now this is gone,” said Roberts. 

Decades of runoff from heavy rains has undermined the ground. 

Resident Jerry Holt’s home flooded on Saturday. He said his back yard looked like a lake with water rushing into his house. 

“I bought shelving in the garage and everything is a foot and a half off the floor, because I know if the water comes in, I have 30 minutes to get everything up off the floor,” said Holt. 

Whenever heavy rains are predicted, most residents said they get little sleep worrying about flooding and sinkholes. 

“It’ll keep me up all night worrying what I’m going find here in the morning,” said Thomas.

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Another sinkhole appears in Calgary

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

For the second time in a week, a sinkhole has formed near a Calgary condominium worksite.

The Calgary Fire Department was recently called to a building in downtown Calgary to investigate reports of a sinkhole in the underground parkade of a condo near a construction site.

The problem was discovered when the front wheel of a pickup truck dropped into the sinkhole.

“When crews from Station #2 and heavy rescue specialists arrived, they observed a sizable hole in the floor of the parkade upon which a pick-up truck was parked,” said a City of Calgary press release.

The incident commander evacuated the building because the hole was adjacent to one of the building’s structural support members.

The heavy rescue team and firefighters removed the pick-up truck and examined the sinkhole.

It is four metres wide by three metres deep and there was a visible connection to the large construction site on the east side of the parkade.

Under the direction of engineers from Lake Placid Developments, the company building the Centuria on the Park condominium project nearby, the sinkhole was filled in using gravel material.

The city also directed the engineers to assess and report on the stability of the adjacent building.

Thirteen residents in eight suites were evacuated from the nearby building and were not allowed to return until the city got an engineering report determining the safety of the complex.

Engineers are also investigating whether the Centuria development project caused the sinkhole’s appearance.

“I am not prepared to make a comment until such time as we are fully appraised by our engineer,” said Steve Seal, executive VP of development with Lake Placid Developments.

“We have retained an engineer and we need to have this team move forward. We don’t have a specific time-line because we want to make sure the proper due diligence is carried out.”

A Calgary city alderman said crews are also looking closely at the safety of other excavation sites.

“There is work being done now to find out how long these other sites were open and some risk assessment is being done,” said Ric McIver.

“We know there are a lot more open excavations around, but we don’t know which will manifest in sinkholes.”

The city is monitoring nine abandoned sites in Calgary and three of these sites have already had work done.

“Once problems start popping up, the city must become more aware, especially when projects are pushed back for an uncertain amount of time,” he said.

“It makes the need for due diligence greater.

McIver said the sinkhole problem is starting to become a major public policy issue in the city.

“We probably need to review our policy on open excavations and make sure we are covered in terms of the amount of time it is open, the type of shoring that is used to maintain the integrity of the surrounding area,” he said. “The review will also include what type of due diligence and inspections can be done and who would pay for it.”

Centuria on the Park broke ground a year and a half ago and is still in the excavation phase.

The discovery of the sinkhole marks the third time a hole has been found near the construction site in the past 10 months.

The first sinkhole appeared last July.

The second was found last fall on 2nd Street, between 13th and 14th avenues. It was repaired by the city’s roads department.

So far, no connection has been determined between the holes and the adjacent construction site.

This is the second time in a week that a large sinkhole has developed next to the excavated construction site of a condo development in downtown Calgary.

A massive sinkhole, which was discovered on April 24, developed under a road adjacent the Gateway-Midtown condo project, owned by Pointe of View Developments.

Its cause has not yet been determined.

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Sinkhole swallows Hernando home

Reported by: Keith Baker

HERNANDO COUNTY, FL — A large sinkhole swallowed up a Spring Hill home late Wednesday.  Local officials say it’s one of the biggest sinkholes they’ve seen.

Damage to the house and its contents at 2133 block of Orchard Park Drive is put at $250,000.

Joni Bates was able to get out of the one story concrete block structure safely with her puppies.  She says insurance should cover the damage.  “They just renewed it, believe it or not.  So, even though I had a sinkhole, I’m very, very fortunate and I thank God,” she said.

The local Red Cross chapter is helping Joni find temporary shelter and clothing.

Florida has more sinkholes than any other state.  They originate beneath the surface when groundwater moves through the limestone and erodes large cavities in the bedrock. When the water table drops, a sinkhole can form.

In this case, it was under Joni Bates’ house. 

“I’ve been here 22 years, part of my life is gone.  My boys grew up in this house”,  she said.

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Sinkhole still collapsing as merchants point fingers

PennDOT making effort to protect Route 65

Thursday, May 07, 2009

By Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The state Department of Transportation is taking steps to protect Route 65 from being devoured by an East Rochester sinkhole that already has claimed a restaurant and is encroaching on a Pizza Hut and GetGo station.

Lane restrictions were posted this week on Route 65 so that experts from Gannett Fleming Engineers could assess the stability of the road and determine the best way to shore it up.

“We are surveying the roadway to make sure it’s not moving,” PennDOT District 11 spokesman Jim Struzzi said.

The sinkhole, which started two years ago as a small hole in the parking lot of the Evergreen Restaurant, is now 40 feet across and 60 feet deep.

It forced the demolition of the Evergreen Restaurant in 2007 and is now encroaching the Pizza Hut parking lot.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Environmental Protection is ramping up the pressure to get the sinkhole repaired, along with the failed drain system that caused it. Late last month, it filed a petition asking the court to enforce a repair order issued to seven property owners a year ago.

Beyond giving emergency workers access to their properties, none of the property owners have taken substantive steps toward repair, though Giant Eagle, Inc., is doing work to divert its storm water.

DEP spokesperson Helen Humphries singled out Evergreen owners Argyrios and Stella Apostolis, saying they “have not yet taken appropriate action.”

But the Apostolises, who saw their undermined restaurant demolished in Jan. 2008, have sued several other property owners as well as East Rochester, saying that an improper tap into a drain on their property and the fact it was carrying the borough’s storm water were key in the failure, and that they were not responsible for maintaining it.

According to that lawsuit, the SuperAmerica gas station — the precursor to the GetGo — was having drainage problems in 1996, and got East Rochester’s permission to tap into a vertical pipe beneath the Evergreen’s parking lot.

The suit says the borough pressured the Apostolises into agreeing, with the understanding that the gas station would keep insurance on the line and do maintenance.

The suit says the pipe was not designed for constant flow of water, which contributed to its failure. It also says the lines carried runoff from much of East Rochester, and that the SuperAmerica and GetGo stations did not get insurance or maintain the line.

“I’m still paying the loan on that hole,” Mr. Apostolis said. “I want my money back, my property back.”

His is not the only lawsuit.

The Pizza Hut restaurant parking lot is slowly being consumed, and its owner, Tri-L Pizza Huts Inc., recently sued the Apostolises, claiming that since the sinkhole started on their property it is their responsibility.

Beaver County Emergency Management Director Wes Hill said the pipe corroded, letting dirt fall down into a 12-foot culvert. The culvert, designed to carry runoff water along with three natural waterways down to the Ohio River, began to back up.

Eventually the whole system collapsed. With water flowing into the hole, the erosion has continued.

Meanwhile, the water that is supposed to go through the culvert underneath Route 65 and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks is instead working its way through the earth beneath the highway, emerging on the downhill side and partially flooding the tracks.

Having even a small amount of water undercutting the roadway “is certainly a serious situation,” Mr. Struzzi said.

Mr. Struzzi previously said that the department would likely use gabian blankets — wire boxes filled with stone — to stop erosion beneath the roadway and stabilize its base, but said this week that the solution would depend on Gannett Fleming’s findings.

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Sinkhole swallows home in Spring Hill

By Joel Anderson, Times Staff Writer 
In Print: Thursday, May 7, 2009

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Spring Hill Fire Rescue’s Kevin Carroll, center, talks to Jim Bates, left, and Joan Bates, sitting, about their home with neighbors Natasha Williams and Hortense Chong. The home is roped off and the Bateses were warned against going inside.
	[DAVE CASEY | Special to the Tim

SPRING HILL

Over the past few months, Jim and Joan Bates have heard creaks echo throughout their home and have seen cracks form in the walls and the floors. It gave them a sinking feeling.

So the couple hired an engineer and a local contractor who pledged to fix any “sinkhole activity” that would threaten to swallow their 23-year-old home.

They were a little too late.

A nearly 15-foot-deep sinkhole opened under the Bates’ home at 2133 Orchard Park on Wednesday afternoon, almost completely devouring the garage and the front of the sprawling, ranch-style house.

Though that area of Hernando County is known for some of the heaviest sinkhole activity in west-central Florida, neighbors and rescue crews said it was one of the largest and deepest — and most destructive — sinkholes they had seen.

At the time the gaping hole formed, a crew from Geo-Logical, Inc. of Port Richey was working to repair holes under the 2,100-square-foot home. “Hey, it happens,” Jim Bates, 51, said. “We’re just thankful that no one was inside the home or got hurt.”

In fact, Bates was almost jovial about the ordeal. He said the house is worth less than they paid and that the insurance money they will recoup will be more than the house is worth.

“It’s a blessing in disguise,” he said. “We’ve got a home with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a sunken garage.”

Jim works for the Pasco County school district; Joan is retired. They were at a doctor’s appointment when their home was swallowed, but their three dogs — Mandy, Mindy and Rudy — were inside. The dogs were freed by the construction crew.

The couple returned to find that their front yard had turned into a natural disaster, 23 years to the day Joan Bates, 57, moved into the home with her young family.

Upon seeing the partially collapsed house, she sat on the ground and teared up.

Several neighbors came by to offer their sympathies, gawk at the damage and take pictures.

“Everyone has been having sinkhole activity around here,” said Brett Levy, who lives across the street. “But this is horrible.”

“It’s unbelievable,” said Kevin Carroll, a district chief with Spring Hill Fire Rescue. “This is pretty close to one of the worst. And I get called on these regularly.”

Over the years, homeowners in Hernando and Pasco counties have experienced steep insurance spikes because of sinkholes. Geologists have said they think the sinkholes are appearing because limestone bedrock in the area is close to the surface, making it more likely to break apart. The drought adds to the problem as groundwater levels decrease.

Joan Bates moved into the home in 1986 but the cracks and noises from the shifting ground recently made it hard to feel safe.

Hopeful that they could fix the problem, the couple called on Geo-Logical to fix the holes through a process called “compaction grouting.” Essentially, the crew will drill holes around the home and pump them full of concrete to fill the fissures.

Jim Bates said the crew started working at the home last week. But sometime Wednesday afternoon, Bates said the crew noticed a hole forming under the garage.

“It just opened bigger and bigger,” Bates said.

Within minutes, the home was consumed. As of Wednesday night, Carroll said the house still seemed to be sinking. He said there was nothing to do but rope off the site.

Carroll wouldn’t allow his firefighters to go inside and the Bateses have been advised to stay out, too. The couple was looking for a place to stay Wednesday night that would allow their dogs.

Jim Bates said insurance would cover the damages. Carroll contacted Red Cross and Publix to make sure the couple could renew their prescriptions and get some items they might need for the next few days.

Inside the home were nearly all of the couple’s possessions. In particular, Jim Bates wanted to salvage his “toys” — two water scooters and a motorcycle — from the garage. “We’ll probably move back to this area,” Bates said. “Florida is still a great place — sinkholes or not.”

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Large sinkhole develops in an Elba housing subdivision
Posted: 5:06 PM May 6, 2009 Last Updated: 5:08 PM May 6, 2009
Recent heavy rains may be responsible for the appearance of a sinkhole in the western Wiregrass. Crews are working to fill in the dirt on Pine Circle. It’s located in the Brookdale subdivision of Elba. The contractor will replace the manhole. It’s hoped that this will solve the problem. With Coffee County covered under the FEMA disaster declaration, local officials hope the federal dollars will reimburse them for the repairs which will run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Homeowners say it’s an inconvenience, but at least no one has been hurt. It’s hoped that the work on filling in the Elba sinkhole will be completed within the week.

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UPDATE: Sinkhole Threatening Family’s Home

Reported by: Lauren Trager, KARK 4 News

We have more information on a giant sinkhole in the front yard of a Little Rock home that we first told you about Sunday. It’s threatening to swallow the home.

The hole is about 20 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet deep. Look a little closer and you see water running through it–and the remnants of the concrete box that used to hold the water inside.

Early Sunday morning Homer and Maxine Boose say they heard what sounded like a muffled bomb going off and later learned their yard had caved in.

Today, city workers evaluated the sink hole, to decide what to do about this private drainage ditch– put in long before the city regulated where and how you could build-possibly 60 or 70 years old.

The Booses say they’re worried about the safety of their home and are considering moving.

“I really don’t want to live here like this. I don’t know what to do and I don’t know what to say because I really don’t want to live here like this,” said Maxine Boose.

The city says they are still considering options for repairing the sink hole—but say because it isn’t a city-owned drainage system, they aren’t totally responsible and likely will not pay to move the Booses to another home.

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Rain opens up two Springfield sinkholes By: KY3 News

SPRINGFIELD — There are a couple new holes in the ground on Springfield’s northwest side.

All this rain caused two sinkholes to open up along west Division in front of Colorgraphic Printing and just across the street Willard South Elementary.

Greene County’s geologist discovered it’s actually an old sinkhole that has re-opened.

“There’s old foundation material and some remnants of farm machinery down there that have rusted out,” Greene County Commissioner, Dave Coonrod said. “(Decades ago) when you farmed, you had a big hole form-up, people would fill it in. Today, that’s not the thing to do.”

It took down a power pole when the ground gave way, and city utilities worked last night to get that repaired.

MoDOT will further examine the sinkhole Monday but says it doesn’t appear to cause any problems for the road.

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Rains Create Huge Sink Hole

Reported by: Betsey Martin, KARK 4-News

Weekend storms have caused major problems for an elderly Little Rockcouple.

Massive rains created a huge sink hole Sunday morning after a storm drain collapsed.

The family that lives there actually heard it happen.

They say they were so alarmed by the noise, they thought lightning had struck their home.

“Like a boom, just kind of shook the ground. It happened before in between the houses and they fixed that, but they didn’t think this was going to happen,” explained homeowner Homer Boose.

City crews were busy working on the problem Sunday morning.

But now the couple worries the hole which runs under their home could get even bigger and….cause their home to collapse.

The storm drain is more than 50 years old.

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Stinks for them, but it seems like they were the ones who created the sinkhole in the first place.

Carlsbad Company Suffers Loss Over Safety

Company’s Business Down 45 Percent After Relocation

POSTED: 6:47 pm MDT May 2, 2009
UPDATED: 12:03 pm MDT May 4, 2009

Carlsbad, N.M. – The oil industry is big business in southeastern New Mexico.

 

A Carlsbad company is down nearly 45 percent from 2008 after being asked to relocate by a government agency because of safety issues. 

An entire business is being boxed and relocated. 

I&W is an oil services company in Carlsbad for nearly 15 years. The company has helped supply the oil industry. 

Their bread and butter has been brine water, distributing at one point 30,000 barrels a month. 

“We pump fresh water into the ground into salt formations and then pump it out and make brine water,” said Lowell Irby, I&W owner. 

It’s commonly used in oil drilling, but making brine underground creates a cavity underneath the site. 

According to the oil conservation division, the site located at the intersection of Highway 62/180 and 285 could collapse into a sinkhole at anytime, taking the business and possibly part of the highway with it. 

They said the age, size and shape of the cavity is similar to the brine wells that collapsed last year in northern Eddy County. 

“It’s estimated that it could be as much as over a 100 feet across up to about 600 feet deep,” said Joel Amwine, Eddy County emergency manager. 

Because of a threat to workers and surrounding infrastructure, division leaders asked the company to make a common sense decision and relocate. 

The company said safety is a priority and have voluntarily followed every state instruction but I&W leaders said it’s a decision that has cost them nearly 45 percent in 2009. 

“I think it’s kind of unfair that they require us to move without someway to compensate us for the move,” Irby said. 

Division leaders said if I&W didn’t voluntarily move, they would’ve taken legal action. 

The state says even though they can’t predict a collapse, they are working with Eddy County emergency services and homeland security to prepare for the possible situation. 

I&W leaders said they have passed every inspection by the state and this is the first they’ve heard of a sinkhole issue. 

They said they don’t believe anything will happen to the site.

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Well, this certainly sucks.

Growing Sinkhole Causes Bowling Alley To Collapse

WHO-TV Staff Writer

May 2, 2009

 

Crews worked late into the night Saturday to stabilize the wreckage so residents above the business could gather their belongings (WHO-TV)

 

Related links

• Bowling Alley Collapses Into Sinkhole Video

Hundreds of people in Perry gathered Saturday night to watch part of a town landmark crumble to the ground. The Perry Bowl is known for its bowling and burgers, but witnesses say a sinkhole caused part of the building to crumble around 7:00 Saturday.

Customers and a woman who lives in an apartment above the bowling alley were able to escape. Crews started knocking down part of the damaged structure in hopes they can stabilize what’s left. That could give residents time to clear out property before crews knock down the rest of the structure.

Perry officials say no one was injured in the incident.

Check back with Channel 13 News for more information as it becomes available.

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Heavy rains leaves behind large sink hole at Falconhead

FALCONHEAD, OK — We’re learning more about a large sinkhole that was left behind by the heavy rains Wednesday in the resort community of Falconhead, Oklahoma. Shelby Levins has more.  Residents describe Falconhead as a quiet community, but after Wednesday’s severe thunderstorms many residents are left pushing flood water out of their homes, and everyone is being told to boil their water. The sun may be out, but it’s not a good day for golf at Falconhead. Flooding has turned the greens into islands, and rising water has seeped into people’s homes. “It rained so hard so hard it didn’t run off fast enough. If you had a little place anywhere it ran in. It ran into the garage and made a big mess,” Falconhead resident Bea Hawthorone says. Bea Hawthorone has called Falconhead home for almost 30 years. She used to regularly play golf, but now she’s working to dry out her garage. Maintenance crews are also out working to repair a washed out street and a broken main water line. Only a creek bed and a large sink hole remains where Diamondhead Place Road used to run. The walls are at least 20 feet high, and the sink hole is at least 30 feet wide. “It was more rain that anyone expected at one time. It just took the road out and took the water line out with it. It shut down out water tower. Luckily we have more water wells, so we put another water well on line,” says Junior Anderson, the maintenance superintendent for Falconhead. Anderson says although the community is now running off another well, water could still be contaminated by a broken pipe. “Still, boil your water before you cook or if you drink it, either way, boil your water.” Anderson and his crew brought in a track hoe to clean out the sink hole. That’s the first step. Then they can fill the huge hole and get the water line hooked up again. Hawthorne says she’s not worried though and is actually thankful for the much needed rain. “Our course is beautiful. It’ll be OK in a few days. It’ll dry out,” she says. Junior Anderson tells us he expects the boil order to be in place until next week as a precaution. As for the sink hole and road repairs, he says he hopes to have it all refilled and back open by this time next week.

Link

They can’t be happy  to have to do this.

Owners ordered to investigate sink hole

Updated: Thu Apr. 30 2009 16:17:35

ctvcalgary.ca

The company responsible for a project at the site of a large sink hole in downtown Calgary has been ordered to find out where it came from.

The City of Calgary has ordered the owners of the Gateway Midtown condo project to take scaffolding and offices off the site and rip up the sidewalk in order to do an engineering report on the problem.

Police shut down roads in the area on April 24 when the sink hole was first discovered.

The project is located at 517 10th Ave S.W.

The road and sidewalk next to the project will remain closed until the matter is dealt with.

The city’s order comes under the Municipal Government Act.

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There are mysteries beneath our feet.

Sinkholes appear out of nowhere: From small, round to gaping paths to the abyss

by Matt Johnson, matt.johnson@lee.net

Sometimes the earth just opens up leaving a big hole.

David McClurg, who raises beef on his farm near Bud, was checking out a field last week when he saw a dark spot. McClurg went closer and saw it was actually a sinkhole. A circle of earth, about six feet in diameter, had fallen into a pit about seven feet deep. At the bottom of the hole, it spread out and darkness disappeared in to crevices.

“I had been over the top of it just a few weeks before and nothing had been there,” McClurg, president of the Vernon County chapter of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, said. “This one just opened up and it was big enough at the bottom to put a car inside.”

Paul Krahn of the Vernon County Land and Water Conservation Department said McClurg’s sinkhole is rare in that it appeared during a relatively dry period, before rain came over the weekend. However, sinkholes in Vernon County are nothing new.

A sinkhole is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, usually by some event involving water occurring under the ground. This can include water bubbling up to the surface to erode limestone structures or erosion by water flowing through sedimentary rock under the surface.

“Sinkholes are a bit of a mystery and that’s part of what makes them interesting,” Krahn said.

McClurg has owned his farm for 43 years and this isn’t the only sinkhole he’s had. When he first bought the place there was a sink hole in a field that he kept filling up with field stones. After 15 years of putting big rocks in the hole, he covered it over with dirt.

Krahn said that in 2007 and in 2008, the county had more reports of newly-formed sinkholes than during any other period in recent history. About six or seven significant sinkholes were found each year.

Perhaps the biggest was on the Donald Weber farm just off County NN in the town of Franklin northwest of Liberty Pole.

At the bottom of a ravine in one of Weber’s fields, a sinkhole began to open up after the flood of August 2007. It got bigger after the floods of June 2008 to the point now where it’s about 25 feet in diameter.

“It’s the kind of hole where you drop a stone, hear it go clink, clink, clink, clink and then hear a splash,” Krahn said.

Weber said four officials from the Geological Society of America came to see the sinkhole, two of them were spelunkers, or cave explorers.

“They said once you get down in the hole a ways you come into a good sized cave,” Weber said. “Leading from the cave are other open places beyond, but they didn’t go any further because they were worried about the ceilings caving in.”

When contacted, officers in the North-Central Region of the Geological Society of America said that the “purported sinkhole” at the Weber farm was explored, but could not immediately name who participated. The regional chair, Eugene C. Kelly, said the visit was not part of a scheduled event particularly for the society.

Weber has owned his farm since 1959 and this is the only sinkhole he’s ever had. For only having one, it’s a doozy.

“I don’t call it a sink hole, I call it a syphon hole, because all the water that runs toward it just goes down in that hole and disappears,” Weber said. “It’s just like a giant drain.”

Link

State Rep. warns of brine well sinkhole possibility

By Stella Davis
Current-Argus Staff Writer

Posted: 04/28/2009 09:03:11 PM MDT

CARLSBAD — Two brine wells located inside the city limits are time bombs waiting to happen, Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, said.They could collapse anytime into sinkholes and swallow everything in their path, he told state Oil and Conservation Division officials.

“It (the collapse of the wells) could happen tomorrow, six months from now or a year,” Heaton said. “This is a concern for all of us. We need to know what you plan to do.”

The OCD, along with the Eddy County Office of Emergency Management and the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management hosted a public meeting Tuesday to update the community on actions that have been taken thus far.

Earlier this month, the OCD put Carlsbad brine well operator I&W Trucking Inc. on notice for unsafe conditions that pose a serious risk to human life and property.

OCD Chairman Mark Fesmire said the location of I&W’s brine operation at 3005 S. Canal St. poses special dangers in the event of a collapse. The facility where the brine operations are located is between U.S. Highways 285 and 62-180 where they converge at a “Y” location commonly known as the South “Y.” The site is also close to the Carlsbad Irrigation District’s canal that delivers water to farmers south of the city.

Fesmire said that I&W has moved its trucking operations to other sites, and his department is working to determine the size of the caverns below. He said that while the move has placed hardships on the company, company officials have been cooperative and have worked well with his agency.

Jim Griswold, of the OCD Environmental Bureau, said the first step was to secure the site and to eliminate I&W traffic. The second steps will be to install early warning instruments to provide the county’s emergency management personnel notice if a sink hole is eminent.

“We are also working to develop the information necessary to create a long term plan for dealing with the site,” Griswold said.

When asked what measures are being taken to prevent a collapse, Griswold said filling the caverns beneath with salt is one option. However, he said determining the actual size of the cavernous area is high on the list of things that must be done.

Heaton said that the public should be given a timetable for when the characterization of the site is to be done.

Griswold said that it could be in a matter of weeks, but that he could not give a precise date. He said the normal characterization method will not work at this particular site and another method will have to be used.

“In addition to characterization to determine how big the cavern is, our other main concern right now is the stabilization of the site and installing an early warning system,” Griswold explained.

Fesmire said that his agency is looking at different options to fill the cavernous area. But it’s still unclear how big the area is at this time. He said that while using salt is one option, it would cost millions.

He said his agency has about $1.8 million in oil and reclamation funds, but that it will not be near enough to do what is needed at the site. He said federal stimulus money and participation by experts from Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories are options that will be explored.

“You do what is needed to be done, and we will figure out how to pay for it,” Heaton said, referring to fellow legislators Sen. Vernon Asbill, R-Eddy, and Rep. Bill Gray, R-Eddy, who attended the meeting.

Gray said that he has concerns over the fact that the OCD forced I&W Trucking to move its operations elsewhere.

“It’s private property and it seems to me the state is taking it. How do you plan to reimburse I&W?” Gray asked.

“This is an emergency situation. We are not taking the property,” Fesmire replied. “I’m sure I&W has some legal repercussions. But given the age of the facilities (wells), the potential for a catastrophic failure is very high. I believe the OCD is doing the right thing. All the professionals who have evaluated the data agree there is a high risk that there could be a collapse.”

Residents living in the area also questioned the amount of time they would have to get out of their homes or a nearby church once the warning system warns of an imminent collapse.

Griswold said he could not give a time line. It depends on the mode of failure. It could be anything from slow ground subsidence to a large sinkhole, as occurred at the large sinkhole near Artesia last summer. That sinkhole was the site of brine well.

Joel Arnwine, county emergency management director, said his office is working closely with OCD, New Mexico Homeland Security and Emergency Management and New Mexico Department of Transportation, in developing an emergency plan in the event the sinkholes were to occur.

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Sinkhole closes Gastonia road to through traffic

April 27, 2009 – 6:48 PM

Kevin Ellis

A sinkhole has required the emergency closure of Washington Street to all traffic between Franklin Boulevard and Overman Avenue, the city of Gastonia reported Monday.

The street, located west of U.S. 321, will remain closed until the cause of the sinkhole is determined and a plan to repair is developed and executed, according to a city release.

The majority of the traffic utilizing Washington Street is local traffic; therefore, no signed detour will be implemented at this time.  Access to adjacent properties will be available.

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Missing dogs saved after five days in sinkhole 
27 Apr 2009

Ingrid Oellermann

Hilton resident Pauline Bowman-Edgar was overjoyed yesterday when she was reunited with her dogs, Dalmatian Chess and Weimaraner Schiller, who literally disappeared — into a hidden four-metre-deep sinkhole — while on an outing five days ago.

Witness features editor Shelagh McLoughlin heard the trapped canines barking underground while walking her own dogs at about 4.30 pm yesterday, and called in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

She said she was initially alerted by her dogs sniffing around the dangerous hole, which was completely covered by a carpet of grass. She had already turned to leave when she heard barking and looked back to check on her animals. They were all there and the barking continued. 

“It had a sort of cavernous sound like it was coming from a drainpipe or something, and I realised immediately it was coming from underground and that there was nothing I could do, so I called the SPCA.”

Inspector Robert Lombard of Howick SPCA and a colleague attached to the Pietermaritzburg branch, Alec Wylie, joined forces to effect a rescue, well supported by members of the local community who crowded round and willingly helped by shining torches and giving encouragement. 

“It all ended happily with the dogs being brought up a ladder and being put into their owner’s car. 

[The owner] was almost in tears,” McLoughlin said. 

She said Bowman-Edgar said she had almost given up hope of finding her lost pets, which vanished while walking with her son in the area — a popular spot for walkers — near the Hilton Hotel. That was on election day, April 22.

Since then Bowman-Edgar has returned to the area daily in search of her beloved dogs, but to no avail.

When the community became aware of the rescue yesterday, some of the locals put two and two together and realised who the dogs belonged to. 

The unsung heroes of the rescue are, however, McLoughlin’s dogs, Tara, Zak and Basil, whose sharp sense of smell led to the discovery.

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Sinkhole forces detour until at least mid-week

 

 

BY SARAH MCGINNIS, CALGARY HERALDAPRIL 26, 2009

 

 

Beltline commuters accustomed to buzzing down 4th Street S. W. will have to find an alternate route as the busy street will remain closed until at least Wednesday after a sinkhole was found near a stalled condo development.

City of Calgary engineers have been working with private engineers to determine how best to stabilize the sink-hole at 4th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues S. W. which was discovered on Friday.

Marco Civitarese, the city’s supervisor of safety codes officers, expects staff will know by late Wednesday whether the street is safe to reopen.

Civitarese said the sinkhole is about six metres long and six metres wide with a varied depth.

Sinkholes are generally caused by water flowing underneath the surface which can remove soil. But addressing one isn’t as simple as filling it in with dirt, said Civitarese.

“You can fill a sinkhole, but you add pressure (to the area). You have to determine if you can add pressure to the shoring system of the building and the road structure itself. It’s very, very complicated,” he said.

The Gateway-Midtown site, adjacent to the sinkhole, was originally owned by developer Resiance.

It dug a hole for the foundation, but the company walked away last fall after stating the project was “financially unfeasible.”

Point of View Developers, which has assumed control over the site, has engineers working with the city to investigate the sinkhole, said Civitarese.

As city engineers explore how to address the sinkhole on 4th Street, Ald. John Mar fears similar problems at other abandoned developments.

“How is this going to impact other sites? At this point we don’t know.We are absolutely going to be investigating further to ensure the integrity of these sites,”Mar said.

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Sinkhole closes downtown streets

 

Appears to be caused by moving water in soil

 

BY KIM GUTTORMSON, CALGARY HERALDAPRIL 24, 2009COMMENTS (5)

 

 

CALGARY – City inspectors are investigating a suspected sinkhole at the site of a shut-down condo development in the Beltline.

Kevin Griffiths, manager of building regulations, said as a precaution adjacent 4th Street has been shut down between 10th and 11th Avenues S.W. as of 3 p.m.

“The sinkhole appears to be caused by the movement of water through the soil,” he said, adding he had just arrived at the site and they were just beginning their inspection. “We’re concerned about any potential damage.”

The Gateway-Midtown site has been a hole in the ground since last fall, when developer Resiance said “insurmountable construction costs have made this project financially unfeasible.” The initial plans had called for a two-tower high-rise condo project.

The city has been monitoring the site to ensure the hole’s walls remained stable.

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PSC getting more reports of sinkholes

The Jamestown Sun

BISMARCK (AP) — The Public Service Commission is finding new sinkholes.

 

The PSC said some have been found north of Beulah, on a county road southeast of Dickinson and under a road near the Scranton grain elevator.

“We are finding now, with this very wet spring, that there are a number of sinkholes that are developing,” PSC President Kevin Cramer said.

“We’re going to have an active sinkhole spring,” predicted Commissioner Tony Clark.

The commission awards contracts for work on abandoned coal mines with money from the federal abandoned mine lands program.

Commissioners said a number of construction firms are interested in those projects. One project near Hazen got 10 bids.

Commissioner Brian Kalk said he was surprised by the number of out-of-state bidders. Cramer said that’s a change from previous years when the PSC sometimes had trouble finding bidders.

 

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Sinkhole briefly narrows U.S. 2 near Monroe

By Debra Smith
Herald Writer

MONROE — Crews hoped to have both lanes of U.S. 2 west of Monroe open for this morning’s commute.

Officials discovered a 29-foot-long sinkhole under the roadway near French Creek Bridge during a routine inspection Wednesday morning.

Workers had to pull up the pavement over the sinkhole, fill it and patch it with new pavement.

The 5-foot-deep void under the pavement probably wasn’t an immediate threat to drivers, Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meghan Soptich said.

“There’s no indication of distress to the pavement,” she said. “To be on the safe side, we decided to close and fix it.”

Crews set up a detour on Roosevelt Road so westbound drivers could skirt the sinkhole. Eastbound drivers were directed to drive down a single lane of U.S. 2.

Sinkholes aren’t common, Soptich said. This one probably developed when heavy rains saturated the soil, which then started to crumble away.

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Sinkhole to shut down McSherrystown street

By MELODY ASPERFor The Evening Sun 

Posted: 04/24/2009 01:00:00 AM EDT

A section of McSherrystown’s Walnut Street alley, near the home association, will need to be closed for several days at the end of next week in order to fix a sinkhole that developed recently.

At Wednesday night’s council meeting, Borough Supervisor Scott Cook said that the sinkhole first appeared on Monday and was caused by a collapsing public sewer line. The hole was temporarily closed with almost two tons of fill, said Cook, but permanent repair of the lines is imperative.

“It’s going to keep collapsing in around it,” said Cook. “It’s only going to get worse.”

The solution, said Cook, will be to dig a 12- to 15-foot trench about 10 feet deep, temporarily block the flow from the sewer line, and then completely replace the broken pipe before refilling the trench.

That section of sewer line will only need to be closed for about an hour, said Cook, limiting the disadvantage to residents of the area.

The entire project will be performed by borough crews, said Cook, and take at least two days or more for completion.

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Macon Water Authority Investigating Sinkhole

MACON, GA –The Macon Water Authority plans to use video equipment to investigate a large sinkhole in Central City Park.

Assistant Executive Director Ray Shell says they don’t know for sure what caused the 10-foot deep hole.

It appeared about 2 weeks ago near the Ocmulgee River levee and at the end of the Ocmulgee Heritage walking trail.

Shell says a large sewer line and the river may have helped cause the hole.

He says the authority found raw sewage in the hole.

“It all depends on what we find as the cause as to how long it will take to affect a repair. It could be anywhere from one week to several weeks, depending on the extent of the cause of this sinkhole,” Shell said.

Shell says the city of Macon found the hole first, and then contacted the Water Authority.

Link

 

Pizza Hut files suit over sinkhole

The Times/LUCY SCHALY The Pizza Hut restaurant in East Rochester is suing the owners of the Evergreen Restaurant over the sinkhole, which is growing where the Evergreen used to be.

Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:08 PM EDT

Bill Vidonic, Times Staff

BEAVER — The operator of the Pizza Hut restaurant in East Rochester says in a lawsuit that the restaurant could close if a growing sinkhole isn’t fixed soon.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Beaver County Court, seeks more than $25,000 in damages from the owners of the former Evergreen Restaurant in East Rochester, Argyrios and Stella A. Apostolis, and demands that they fix the sinkhole next to Pizza Hut.

Earlier this month, the state Department of Environmental Protection said it would take over efforts to fix the sinkhole, a process that could cost up to $5 million.

Aurora Huts, based in Texas, leases and operates the East Rochester Pizza Hut at 810 Route 65. The Apostolises operated the Evergreen at the adjoining property, 816 Route 65.

According to the lawsuit, a 10-foot culvert ran directly beneath the Evergreen, part of a privately owned storm-water drainage system that carried water from properties by the Riverview Plaza under Route 65 and into the Ohio River.

The culvert under the Evergreen collapsed or became clogged in 2007, and a sinkhole developed alongside the Evergreen.

According to the lawsuit, written by Pittsburgh attorney Beth A. Slagle, Argyrios Apostolis tried to fill the sinkhole with gravel and other debris between August and September 2007.

The Apostolises closed their restaurant in September 2007, as the sinkhole grew beside and beneath the restaurant. As the building collapsed, according to the suit, the additional debris caused further damage to the culvert, allowing the sinkhole to get bigger. The building was condemned and demolished in January 2008.

The Apostolises reopened the Evergreen in Chippewa Township last year.

The suit estimates the sinkhole as now being 80 feet deep and about 140 feet wide, and Pizza Hut says that a “significant portion” of its adjoining property is unstable and unusable. Portions of the property are barricaded to keep customers away.

According to the suit, the pizza restaurant has lost business, and if the sinkhole continues to grow, it might be shut down and the building abandoned.

The lawsuit accuses the Apostolises, along with their business corporation, Tria Adelphia Inc., of negligence and trespass.

Argyrios Apostolis said Wednesday that trying to fill what was initially a small hole didn’t create additional problems.

“These guys don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said. “This is not my fault. I lost my business, I lost my property.”

He added, “I lost everything. I don’t have any money. Pizza Hut, they do a good job, but they should look a little bit further than to look at one individual.”

Earlier this month, Beaver County Emergency Services Director Wes Hill said that initial work to fix the sinkhole and unclog the culvert would cost $1 million. To fix the entire drainage system under the shopping plaza would cost an additional $4 million or $5 million.

At the same time, state Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-47, New Sewickley Township, said that he, state Rep. Jim Marshall, R-14, Big Beaver, and the DEP were working to find $1 million in funding to begin repair work.

One of the Apostolises’ attorneys, Beverly Block of Pittsburgh, said Wednesday that she hoped to soon file paperwork in Beaver County Court outlining her clients’ position on who is responsible for the sinkhole and its repairs.

As to the Pizza Hut suit, Argyrios Apostolis said, “I tell them what everybody tells me: Good luck.”

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Sinkhole forces closure of Thomas Walker pool

By Wes Bunch

JONESVILLE — The possible danger presented by an active sinkhole near the Thomas Walker High School swimming pool resulted in the Lee County Board of Supervisors voting to keep the facility closed indefinitely.

On a motion by Supervisor Larry Moseley, the board voted unanimously Tuesday night to delay opening the pool until a geological study of the area and an assessment of the structure’s integrity can be made.

The board came to its decision after hearing a report on the situation from Bobby Lane, a professional engineer and president and CEO of the Lane Group Inc., who deemed the pool unsafe for use until the issues could be addressed.

“The cavity of the hole … is not very large as far as what you can see from the surface,” Lane said. “But after further investigation and a closer look at this hole, it seems to indicate we have an active sinkhole. The cavity is much larger underneath the concrete apron (of the pool area). … The apron is beginning to crack and give way.”

The throat of the sinkhole is roughly 3 to 4 feet wide and is estimated to be about 10 feet deep, although it could be much larger and actually extend under the pool itself.

That could cause a massive failure, Lane said, which could possibly lead to the collapse of the sidewalk, or even worse, the pool itself.

“As long as the depression is here and not corrected, it is a safety issue,” he said. “I think the county needs to look at stabilizing the soil and reinforcing the pool prior to opening it to make sure it is safe for people to use it. With water and the (area’s) karst topography, there can be a pretty rapid failure (of the sinkhole).”

Lane said it would also need to be determined if other sinkholes were in the area and weigh the costs and benefits of the project before proceeding.

Sinkholes are natural depressions or holes in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock by water. Mainly found in areas with karst topography, they can range in size from a few feet to hundreds of feet in width and depth.

The closure leaves the county with only one public swimming pool in Pennington Gap, since the town of Jonesville’s pool was previously closed due to leaks and an expensive repair bill.

Board Chairman Carl Bailey, who represents the district the pool is located in, said it was a tough choice to make because activities for children and families in that remote part of the county are limited anyway. But in the end, he said it was the right one.

“It’s safety first, and we have to make sure the kids are safe because we don’t want anything to happen to them,” Bailey said. “It’s not worth opening the pool if someone gets hurt. One death isn’t worth a swimming pool.”

There is still a possibility the pool could be opened before the summer ends, Bailey said, but that’s if the evaluations turn out better than expected.

“It’s bad, but hopefully we can get some information together, and if everything goes good maybe we can get it open — even if it’s late,” he said. “That’s better than nothing at all.”

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Sinkhole closes U.S. 2 lane west of Monroe

By Debra Smith
Herald Writer

MONROE — Crews have reduced both directions of U.S. 2 to one lane of alternating traffic one mile west of Monroe.

Workers this morning discovered a 29-foot-long sinkhole under the roadway near French Creek Bridge.

A detour is expected soon on Roosevelt Road, which should allow westbound drivers to skirt around the sinkhole, Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meghan Soptich said. Crews plan to keep eastbound drivers moving along a single lane of U.S. 2.

Workers have to pull up the pavement over the 5 foot deep sinkhole, fill it and patch it with new pavement, she said. The work is expected to continue late into the evening.

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Woman Falls Into Old Well In Fayette

Posted: 9:18 am EDT April 22, 2009Updated: 11:46 am EDT April 22, 2009

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – A woman fell into a deep hole in front of a Fayette County health clinic Wednesday morning. 

News Chopper 2 flew over the hole in Fayette County as emergency workers crowded the scene. 

Officials said the woman many have been trapped underground for over an hour. A co-worker finally heard her screams for help and called 911. 

“She had stepped off the paved porch and there was ground that gave way. We do believe it’s the remnants of an old well,” said Capt. Bill Rieck with the Fayetteville Fire Department. 

On the surface, the hole looked harmless, but the 2 foot wide sinkhole was enough to entrap a health clinic employee. 

Rescuers said she slipped into the hole and dropped 13-15 feet into a cave-like trench. 

“We estimate the distance from her head to the top of the ground was at least 8 feet,” said a firefighter. 

City and county fire rescue crews arrived and were able to pull the woman from the hole in 20 minutes. 

“Apparently her yelling for help alerted an individual to search the premises and eventually he came out and located her in the hole beneath the ground,” said a firefighter. 

The walkway will remain closed until the sinkhole can be filled. 

The woman was taken to the hospital. Her condition has not been released.

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Science of sinkholes

Tara Muck
News-Leader

Nixa — It’s just an empty lot now. Any sign of what used to stand there is long gone. Cars pass by without a second thought about what happened nearly three years ago.

The 75-foot deep, 60-foot wide Nixa sinkhole that swallowed up Norm Scrivener’s car, garage and part of his house in August 2006 has baffled geologists. Never in southwest Missouri had such a phenomena occurred in an urbanized area.

After a couple years studying the formation, Missouri State University Professor Doug Gouzie tried to provide some answers to the area’s most infamous sinkhole.

Surprise

The beauty of southwest Missouri’s landscaping also contains very porous rock — limestone.

Limestone, made up of calcium and carbonate, dissolves where water flows because of the acidity in rain water, Gouzie, a geology professor at MSU told a crowd of about 40 last week at a lecture at MSU.

About 60 percent of Missouri is underlain with this rock, which is why the state boasts elaborate caves.

It’s also why sinkholes are so common.

As groundwater moves through the soil over time, top rock is eroded away first and then dirt, leaving a hollow hole in its place, Gouzie said.

Gouzie, who has studied sinkholes for nearly 30 years, said Scrivener’s sinkhole was surprising on a couple levels.

A study conducted by an MSU professor in the 1970s documented about 270 sinkholes in the Nixa Sinkhole Plain, which runs from Missouri 14 north to where James River crosses U.S. 60, Gouzie said. But of those 270 identified, only about 10 were collapsed sinkholes, where the soil actually collapsed in, rather than a gradual sinking.

A gradual sinkhole would have the appearance of a saucer, while a collapsed sinkhole is more thought of as an ice cream cone shape, Gouzie said.

“When you see any collapse that’s significant in size — 15 to 20 feet in diameter — then that’s pretty unusual right there,” Gouzie said. “That’s maybe 5 to 10 percent of the total number that anybody studies is the collapse.”

But it was one missing element that really baffled the geological crew at the site — rock.

Gouzie said the most surprising thing to him and other geologists was there was no rock to be seen anywhere in the sinkhole. Dirt erodes much faster than rock, so if the rock is gone, the soil should be as well.

“We’ve seen some thick soil around here … but for the most part 10 or 15 feet is pretty good,” Gouzie said. “If you have the irregular top of the bed rock, you might get 30 feet of soil somewhere, but to have 75 (feet), it’s probably twice than what we would have expected anywhere.”

Origins

Many times, large sinkholes, such as the one in Nixa, open up to a cave and are formed by underground moving water.

Tests usually performed to find origins of sinkholes weren’t plausible in Nixa, Gouzie said. That’s because Scrivener’s garage, along with his car, went down the hole, making it impossible to run dye into the bottom of the hole and detect it in area springs.

Another way would to be to go through a cave in the vicinity to see where it led. But the cave Gouzie and other geologists feel lead to Nixa’s sinkhole — the Saunders Valley Cave — hasn’t been searched deep enough.

So Gouzie and other professionals made an educated guess that the sinkhole drains out to Blue Spring, northwest of the site near the Saunders Valley Cave.

But while that’s the geological origins, there are also other factors Gouzie feels could have expedited the process in Nixa.

Perfect storm

Because Scrivener’s home was built in 1969, it originally had a septic tank, Gouzie said, which was visible after the garage collapsed into the sinkhole.

If the septic tank leaked even after it was closed off in the early ’70s, it could have helped the erosion process already in play by rainwater, he said.

Also exposed around the sinkhole were tree roots that lead to the stumps of two directly behind the house that had been cut down years earlier. Gouzie said when the tree roots’ water source died because of the trees being cut, the roots eventually shriveled up, leaving more empty spaces.

There was also a rain gutter hose that was placed on the uphill side of the house, which meant rainwater washed sediment down to the other side of the house. It was on the uphill side of the house that the sinkhole occurred, Gouzie said.

That doesn’t mean Scrivener or the builder is to blame.

“I think this collapse was going to happen anyway,” Gouzie said. “Whether it would’ve happened in 20 years or 50 years or a hundred years or a thousand years, that’s unfortunately where I’m still doing research.”

sinkholes today

The hole has been filled — on top of Scrivener’s car and parts of his garage — with 165 truckloads of rock.

Patches of grass grow over the once-hollow ground.

And while homes are still occupied on both sides of the former house, the earth continues to settle over time, causing two small sinkholes to appear.

“When you fill it up like that, there’s usually some settling that occurs the first couple of years,” Gouzie said of the rock that filled the hole.

“What’s happened is the soil that was put on the very top as the very last thing … is still washing down into the rock, and that’s going to happen for a while.”

The idea of that type of formation occurring again in the area is of concern. Could the spring that caused the original sinkhole create another along its path?

Possibly, Gouzie said. But sinkholes are more likely to develop farther down the stream as the water gains momentum. That is why the Nixa sinkhole was so surprising, because it was actually on the ridge of the Nixa Sinkhole Plain.

But planners at the city and county level are using technology to spot sinkholes, such as Ground Informational System, which the county uses, said Bob Atchley, Christian County’s acting planning and zoning administrator.

With this, the county is able to detect sinkholes so development of water and sewer, streets, and buildings can avoid a potential hazard. According to county ordinances, no new construction is allowed within 30 feet of the rim of a sinkhole.

“Any time we have any type of proposal in the county … we do a brief environmental assessment before we issue a permit,” Atchley said. “That starts with looking on the GIS system to see if it shows any mapped sinkholes.”

In Nixa, the city has looked to updated technology to help open up more space for development. The city’s use of a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) enabled the city to change its setback ordinance from prohibiting construction 30 feet from a sinkhole rim to 10 feet.

That’s because the GPR is better able to detect the precise location of sinkholes, City Planner Travis Cossey told the board in October when the ordinance was passed.

Still, Gouzie and Atchley both said the best way to prevent a sinkhole disaster is to be vigilant regarding water runoff, as well as look for signs of sinking or cracking in the soil or foundation.

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UPDATE: Sinkhole shuts down northbound traffic on Doug Barnard Parkway; Repairs on hold due to economy

By Rich Rogers rrogers@nbcaugusta.com

Story Published: Apr 21, 2009 at 8:57 AM EDT

Story Updated: Apr 21, 2009 at 10:42 AM EDT 

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A sinkhole has caused a major Augusta road to be closed indefinitely.

The sinkhole occurred on the northbound side of Doug Barnard Parkway, also known as State Highway 56 Spur, north of its intersection with Bobby Jones Expressway.

The sinkhole was caused by a broken sewer line that was installed in the early 1960s.

The Georgia Department of Transportation says northbound traffic on Doug Barnard will be detoured via Bobby Jones Expressway, Mike Padgett Highway, and Gordon Highway.

The sinking economy also plays a role in the repair of the sinkhole. Construction workers say it could be as late as next Thursday before repairs are completed because they have been forced to take furloughs.

Drivers are advised to avoid this area if possible.

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One moment you’re enjoying a nice picnic at a park, the next you’re forced to walk home.

Kingwood sinkhole forces drivers to abandon cars

By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

About 100 residents were forced to abandon their vehicles at River Grove Park in Kingwood Sunday night, after an 8-foot-deep sinkhole abruptly took the lone road to the park out of commission.

Possibly damaged by flooding and debris from this weekend’s storms, the asphalt road in the 1000 block of Woodland Hills Drive caved in around 6 p.m., officials said. Park goers were left with little choice but to camp out or walk home. The only path out of the park was a small wooden pedestrian bridge.

Many residents were left wondering how they would get to work and other important appointments this week,

“I’ll have to walk or ride a bike,” said Cecelia King, a seamstress who was enjoying the park with her three young nieces and nephews. “It was unbelievable how we could be trapped here. Nothing at all was wrong with the road when I went over it.”

A few hours later, a 20-by-30-foot oval patch of the road sunk an estimated 8 feet. No one was injured.

Calling the road unstable, officials barricaded the entrance. It could take several days to make the needed repairs, they said.

The road is about one-quarter mile from the waterways that lead to Lake Houston.

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Has to be considered the worst case scenario with a sinkhole – you’re walking along and it just opens up beneath your feet!

Young man seriously injured after falling into sinkhole over the weekend

A young man was seriously injured over the weekend when he fell into a sinkhole nearthe Dead Sea.

Idan Shadmi was hiking in the area with his girlfriend Liat Hertz and another friend when the ground fell away from beneath Hertz, and she nearly fell down the 20-meter hole.

“Idan was right behind me, and came in a second to help me,” Hertz told Army Radio on Sunday. “He managed to push me out a bit, and then fell in.”

Shadmi was evacuated by rescue teams and taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

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Sinkhole closes Gastonia’s U.S. 321

By Steve Lyttle
slyttle@charlotteobserver.com

Posted: Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009

One lane of Highway 321 in Gastonia will remain closed overnight because of a sinkhole. PHOTOS from AirStar36

A major Gastonia route remains closed this morning, while crews battle to repair the impact of a sinkhole.

Two of three lanes on northbound U.S. 321 are closed, just north of Interstate 85. In addition, the ramp from southbound Interstate 85 to U.S. 321 is closed.

Crews closed this road about 9 a.m. Wednesday and had hoped to complete repairs by the end of the afternoon.

But the sinkhole, estimated to be about 12 feet in diameter, proved too much a hurdle. Crews are still working this morning to make the repairs. Department of Transportation officials say a drainage pipe broke underground, causing the sinkhole.

Crews are not sure when repairs will be completed, but the latest estimate is 5 p.m. today.

To reach U.S. 321 from southbound I-85, motorists must go to Exit 14 (N.C. 274) and then take N.C. 275.

For northbound motorists on U.S. 321, only one of the three lanes is open.