Posted on 03/02/2013 10:46:14 AM PST by Kaslin
SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) Engineers worked gingerly Saturday morning to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could eventually succumb to the unstable ground.
Jeff Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy.
Engineers began doing more tests at 7 a.m. Saturday. Crews with equipment were at the home next door, one of two that has been evacuated. By 10 a.m., officials moved media crews farther away from the Bush house so experts could perform tests on the home across the street. It's unclear how large the sinkhole is, or whether it leads to other caverns and chasms throughout the neighborhood. Experts say the underground of West Central Florida looks similar to Swiss cheese, with the geography lending itself to sinkholes.
Experts spent the previous day on the property, taking soil samples and running various tests while acknowledging that the entire lot where Bush lay entombed was dangerous. No one was allowed in the home.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bush’s fault.
photo?
Sequester’s fault — sign of things to come regarding the budget talks
Global warming.
Erm - the family’s name is Bush. “Bush’s Fault” jokes may be inappropriate.
Not Bush. it’s the Reagan tax cuts
No photo’s from inside the home that I’ve seen. Everyone is too scared of the sinkhole.
Clearcasely, it was just a joke.
Too bad this sinkhole is so far south. Imagine if it were a bigger sinkhole that swallowed Chicago!
I know southern Indiana isn't known for sinkholes, but it is known for mining. I've been told that caverns extend many miles underground in and around places like Vincennes, Lyons, Linton, Crane Naval Base, etc.
I wonder what would happen to places in that area if/when the New Madrid fault slips again. I would bet whole towns would disappear into huge holes.
I’m nearby, in Temple Terrace, and it’s quite likely that the weather may have been the contributing factor here. It’s the underlying limestone layer, which is very porous, which collapses, and causes the earth on top of it to drop down into the void. We haven’t had much rain lately, so the limestone was likely dry...the water that normally fills the spaces provides some support...so the limestone was under more pressure. We had a very heavy rainstorm the other day, and the heavy, rain-soaked soil was likely too much, and it all collapsed.
How do they know the man is dead? His brother survived jumping in to try to save him. Are we talking twenty, thirty, how many feet deep? Water at the bottom, flowing or still? This whole thing is alien to me, the soil here is red clay and bedrock is granite. Not too many underground caverns around. Not unheard of for a house to slide down a hill in a mudslide after a particularly heavy rain, but disappearing into a hole in the ground? Never.
When these go the ground usually collapses so he was likely buried in soil and loose rock. Yes there is water to worry about too as the water level in most areas of Florida is just a few feet down.
fracking!
My brother in law was trapped in a sinkhole in Texas once; he was riding a horse and his horse sunk to the point they were both trapped. Trying to free himself was impossible, the ranch crew worked most of the day with shovels to dig them out, the ground kept caving in as they dug. That was a small sinkhole, so I can understand why it was impossible to get the Florida man out. My brother in law had his head and shoulders out so could breathe, said it was terrifying anyway- similar to quicksand the more he or his horse struggled the more they became trapped.
The entire sinkhole appears to be inside the walls of the house. All homes here are built on concrete slabs, and they are just poured onto the ground..a few inches thick..no rebar is used..so the hole opened up DIRECTLY under the slab..just happened that way...it's apparently almost the size of half the house..without the slab on top..they'd likely have noticed the ground collapsing..but suddenly the slab was just overstressed, and concrete will just fracture..often crumble, and everything went into the hole, and a lot came down on top of him..if the bed had been in a different spot, he might well have survived, been able to climb out..
FYI..here's a link to a very good article about sinkholes..with some amazing pics. There are also several good links within that article..
"He said there was nothing wrong with the house. Nothing. And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole," Bush said.
Just another phony inspection scam. Somebody takes a one day class and gets a phony inspector certificate. Then hires himself out to insurance companies to certify homes for insurance purposes.
I walk around your house with a metal rod and stick in the ground every few feet. The rod meets resistance to penetrating the ground. Presto your house is certified to be safe from sink holes.
Now if the guy had ground penetrating radar I might think he had a chance of predicting a problem. But not just walking around the house.
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