Sinkhole devours Florida houses

Earth continued her subterranean war on the human race this week by opening another sinkhole in Florida.

The results can be disturbing:

The sinkhole, estimated to be 250 by 225 feet and 50 feet deep, is full of water and not draining because of debris, Guthrie said. It's also looks like it's full of household chemicals and septic tank parts.

"We're treating this in essence as a haz-mat incident," he said.

The CNN account feels cinematic at times:

Authorities were called Friday morning about a depression the size of a small pool that a boat on the property was falling into.

 

Pasco County Sheriff's Deputy Jay Murphy said he arrived at 7:48 a.m. ET to find the sinkhole had formed and reached the corner of one house.

 

Nobody was home, he said, but fire and rescue personnel were able to get two dogs out before one corner of the house fell into the sinkhole.

 

By this point, the sinkhole was moving quickly, with "large chunks of the ground actually caving in," he said. 

 

Murphy said he went to the second house and helped an elderly woman and two other females get out. Other deputies started yelling for them to move quickly because the ground was collapsing underneath the corner of the house, he said.

 

The residents of the first house drove up in time to see the rest of their house destroyed, Murphy said, speaking to reporters in front of the sinkholes.

"As soon as they got here, what you see now is what they witnessed as the house caved into the hole," the deputy said. "They were unable to get any belongings. Everything they owned was in there."

There's also this ominous statement:

"The hole itself now appears to be dormant," Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County's assistant administrator for public safety, said at a news conference.

The war continues.

 

(thanks to Steven "Limestone Terror" Kaye)