Man trapped in 100-foot wide sinkhole near Tampa

Man trapped in 100-foot wide sinkhole near Tampa

www.cbsnews.com

A large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house near Tampa, trapping a 34-year-old man in the rubble.The home collapsed late Thursday in a Brandon neighborhood. By early Friday, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials determined the home had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts.

Fire rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said Bracken Engineering officials determined the home's bedroom is the center of the sinkhole, which measures about 100 feet across.

Listening devices and cameras were placed in the hole but there had been no contact with the missing man by early Friday.

Engineers condemned the house, reports CBS Tampa aff

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for people that don't know what a sinkhole is:

A sinkhole, is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by karst processes.

Obviously the story is still developing and I hope they will find a way to rescue this man, if possible. Nearby neighbours are evacuated Let's hope for the best.

www.cbsnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Sadly, I don't think there is going to be good news to this story. I do hope they are able to rescue him but if they haven't heard anything, I don't think they will. Keeping my fingers crossed.

reply to post by citizenoftheworld

Obviously, it would really suck to fall into a sinkhole, regardless of what you're doing at the time.(walking, at work, driving, etc...), BUT while you're asleep at home in bed, has got to be near the top of the list of absolute worst possible sinkhole scenarios.

I really can't even imagine that very well, but I'm sure I wouldn't believe it though.(not at first anyways).


Wake up thinking, "What the heck is goin' on?!?!? .... ah ok. Whew. Nevermind. That was a bit scary at first, but this is undoubtedly just a bad dream, because something like this would never actually happen in real life......."





This↓ is the same diagram that was shown in this vid. It might be helpful.






On the other hand, based only off of a couple of the comments in that vid, it almost seemed as if they were describing it as being somewhat like quicksand, as opposed to a big open hole.

THe have tons of fancy equipment, they go down holes in the north pole. Why haven't they done a rescue yet. It sounds like its been days. Why have they stopped rescuing people????????

That is a first day activity. Not a week later.

this is actually happening right down the road from where i work the latest reports is that the guy was in bed when the sicnkhole opened up the brother jumped into help him and was traped himself the deputy helped the first brother out and the second is still trapped and they can hear him yelling if it sinks any farther it may not be enough to get him out. The sink hole has already widen passed the point where it has swallowed some of the rescue equipment that was set up to retrieve the other brother.

reply to post by Kadmiel


There must be a lot of debris in the way. I keep seeing cables and cranes to clear a path to him.

Here is a local source that has more info..

Sinkhole swallows up sleeping man in Seffner home

Many sinkholes occurred here last year due to farmers pumping so much water out of the ground to keep the strawberries iced over during cold weather. But, no freezing temps here recently and I don't see any farms near the property when I look on google.

reply to post by citizenoftheworld


Possible explanation?

Originally posted by Kadmiel
this is actually happening right down the road from where i work the latest reports is that the guy was in bed when the sicnkhole opened up the brother jumped into help him and was traped himself the deputy helped the first brother out and the second is still trapped and they can hear him yelling if it sinks any farther it may not be enough to get him out. The sink hole has already widen passed the point where it has swallowed some of the rescue equipment that was set up to retrieve the other brother.

Thanks for the update.

Looks like sinkhole might be getting bigger than. Hopefully they can reach him in time. Can't imagine how nerve reckoning his brother is.

Good thing is, is that he's alive. That's hope.

I find it somewhat strange that a sink hole opens up in Florida, down which a U.S. citizen seems to have been dragged, and no one is prepared to go down there and do what must be done, and yet the U.S. was happy enough to send a rescue team to Chile to extract some of thier citizens.

Get the people that dealt with that mess down to Florida maybe?

reply to post by TrueBrit


ok - tell us how to rescue a casualty from an expanding sink hole

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Im sure you think its very smart to ask me dont you, because you know as well as I do that I have no expertise to offer. However, all it proves is that you have very little imagination. At least I am suggesting putting an action plan together that involves getting some people who DO have deep exploration expirience, like the people who rescued the Chilean miners, involved with the efforts currently being made, which currently feature firefighters and little else of any use.

Do you fancy saying anything that might contribute something worth while to the discussion at some point, or were you just going to keep blowing gas? Just a thought.

reply to post by ignorant_ape
Maybe they should get one or two of those evacuation slides off of a plane door and bring them to site. Tie them off to a tractor or loader a few hundred feet away and deploy slides as a base over the affected area to tie ropes on and lower into the hole and search around. This would probably be safer than risking a helicopter rescue where rotor wash or extreme vibration can speed up liquification of the ground if it has turned quicksand like, The slide have a large surface area to weight ratio, something like that might be just what they need. Sort of like the ladder over the hole in the ice trick....

I know it is a whacked out thought but I think something like that could work.

reply to post by citizenoftheworld

I dont understand why their are 2 post about the same topic and why they are both on the new topic page.

I grew up in the area, am very familiar with sinkholes. West central Florida is totally saturated with sinkholes. Its gotten worse over the years because the water table is dropping. Hopefully it filled up from the collapse. That can buy him some time. The biggest threat is that it fills up with water. Or widens up. Some of the sinkholes in that area are hundreds of feet deep.

How tragic. To think you could be swallowed into the earth in your bed.

Last I heard the hole is growing in depth and width or at least in depth. The poor guy is most likely dead. No signs of life they say and the unstability is making it dangerous to extract his body

They say sinkholes are common in Florida due to limestone.

I feel awful for the brother who was trying to dig him out but had to quit once rescuers arrived and deemed it unstable.

He says it sounded like a freight train coming through the house, heard his brother scream, went into his room and it was all gone along with his brother. He thought he heard him scream for help a few times after he was sucked in. Could only see part of his bed sticking out. Grabbed a shovel, started digging, but a deputy pulled him out and he feels his brother isn't being helped out. Some equipment was lost in the hole. He's on CNN now crying nobody is digging him out and praying there's an air pocket in there.

He is saying in August or September insurance came to home and even checked for sinkholes, no risks were found.

Originally posted by Infi8nity
I dont understand why their are 2 post about the same topic and why they are both on the new topic page.

One thread was locked to use this one. It happens if two are posting at same time, earliest one posted should be chosen

Originally posted by TrueBrit
I find it somewhat strange that a sink hole opens up in Florida, down which a U.S. citizen seems to have been dragged, and no one is prepared to go down there and do what must be done, and yet the U.S. was happy enough to send a rescue team to Chile to extract some of thier citizens.

Get the people that dealt with that mess down to Florida maybe?

Not really knowing anything about mining, I suppose it's different rock and soil they're dealing with and that the hole is growing, endangering responders lives. Still though I agree somewhat they need better experts to deal with this problem. Firefighters aren't experienced to do this job. They're assuming he's dead so the urgency isn't there. Its gone from rescue to recovery. His poor brother feels they should try harder of course. I wonder if he regrets a 911 call was made that put a stop to his digging, although this put his own life at risk.