Sinkhole swallows boat, 2 Florida houses; others at risk
July 15, 2017 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Florida authorities this morning asked multiple families to evacuate their homes after a sinkhole swallowed up a boat, an entire house and most of another in their neighborhood, police said.
Eleven homes were evacuated because of the “active sinkhole” in Land O’Lakes, Florida, which officials said was “by no means stable.”
Emergency workers approached each home in the area to personally evacuate every structure. There were no injuries reported as of early Friday morning.
‘)
During a press conference on Friday, officials said the sinkhole, which is still growing, had swallowed a swimming pool, in addition to the homes and the boat. The hole is currently filled with water and debris, and officials warned that it could be a month before the issue is resolved.
“It’s an active sinkhole, so we don’t know how big it’s going to get yet,” a Pasco County battalion chief on the scene told reporters Friday. “We’re just evacuating other homes and making sure everybody is safe.”
The sinkhole, which authorities said was between 225 and 250 feet wide and about 50 feet deep, also resulted in a loss of power for about 100 other homes in the area after the local energy provider cut power for some residents as a safety precaution.
“We’re getting a plan together right now to find out how many homes we need to evacuate,” the battalion chief on the scene said, adding that geological inspectors were heading to the area to “give us a definitive number on how big we need to evacuate.”
Officials suspended boating at a nearby lake and asked those living between the sinkhole and the lake to evacuate because “the entire ground can collapse at any second.”
Authorities first received a call about the hole at 7:21 a.m. ET when a resident reported that an open depression under a boat, which authorities found completely swallowed less than 10 minutes later, officials said.
ABC News’ Jason Volack contributed to this report.
