they seem to be getting a little more intense. I thought sinkholes were caused when the limestone cavities are devoid of water - but this summer we have gotten extraordinarily large amounts of rainfall. Just a few months ago a sinkhole opened up under a man’s bedroom and he was killed. Then this morning I’m on my way into work and…
Luckily there were no injuries or deaths reported.
I think people would be smart to ask for a ground survey be performed prior to buying a house these days, especially in central FL. I remember the guy being swallowed by a sinkhole under his bedroom over in Valrico. I think they acted to quickly to entomb the poor guy. Shame they didn’t lower someone on a crane to recover the remains.
He wasn’t just at the bottom of a giant hole. He was near the bottom of a giant whole underneath all the crap that fell in after him. Sadly he was literally buried alive and a few relatives tried like hell to dig him out but simply couldn’t get to him.
If you had a crane right there and ready to go when it happened they still might not have been able to save him. I almost hope he didn’t end up in some kind of “pocket” where he was able to realize his situation.
It’s time to think about moving from some areas of the nation.
“One cannot awaken a man who pretends to be asleep.”
I agree. Starting with hurricane prone coastal areas that are below sea level.
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For several years my wife and I considered moving to Florida. We love to vacation there and love the tropical climate and sheer abundance of things to do.
BUT, when you factor in all the really ****ed up stuff about Florida, the beautiful scenery and climate just can’t overcome it for us.
Too many/much
Giant suckholes magically appearing without warning
Giant Sea tornadoes (hurricanes)
Crime
East coast migrants turning the state blue
Add to that the state of the job market and economy in Florida and it unfortunately will have to remain a pretty place to vacation, for us anyway.
Damn shame. I might of made a decent beach bum. 
In all seriousness, though, those sinkholes are scary shit. I hope that situation resolves itself soon. If Disney World folds in on itself my kids will be scarred forever.
Double tap… Stupid iPhone.
A few of the sites Chase had selected for branch banks had to be axed because we were not happy when we got the boarings/soils report. There are defiantly areas of questionable soils in Florida, but this happens in other parts of the country.
One time in Queens NY I was designing a multi use building for a paving company. The first flood would house heavy equipment… EEEK! We had the soils report and it was shit. So we needed a pile test. That they do is take a 12" circ. pile and drive it into the ground and count how many blows it takes to drive it X feet I to the ground. Well one pile was moving maybe 6" per blow then on one strike it stopped and on the next one it went about 3’! They excavated and found a car!!!
Going back to sink holes, a lot of times they happen when ground waters are traveling fast, not like the typical aquifer but like a river. Frequently this happens when there is a breach in an underground storm water pipe. At the are of the breach the fast moving storm water scours away the adjacent soil and carries it away. Boom, sink hole.
In the photo you can see a discharge from a storm pipe into the retention basin. This looks to be like there was a storm water pipe between the two homes and suffered a wall breach to the side which now has a sink hole.
Edit: both homes not the one. And also that looks like an overflow for a detention pond. Either way, water was flowing quickly through a pipe under those homes.
Edit 2: The reason sink holes “seem” to be appearing more often then before is because as development expands, the areas with good/stable soils are already developed and the only areas to expand do are those with questionable soils. Silt, sand, clay, and organic soils SUCK to build on. If the side is not properly prepared, this will happen. More often than not, in locations like Florida, homes do not have basements or deep foundations, the contractor therefore has no reason to excavate and replace unsuitable soils. The existing soils are compacted until you get something like 2500psf and u hope for the best. But if the soil is sandy, all the compaction in the world won’t help in the long run. Look at what they have to do in Bahrain and Dubai. The crazy lengths they go through to stabilize sandy soils. No home builder in Florida will do anything remotely that complex to build a 3500sf cookie cutter home. It’s just not cost effective. They just take the chance that 1 of 100 homes will end up 30 feet below grade.
Google “karst topography Florida.”
Most of Florida is sitting on limestone, which has been dissolving for millions of years as rainwater percolates through the surface soils and into the bedrock aquifers. The state’s a sponge with a lot of holes. The more places you build, the more holes you find.
Scary stuff.
Glad no one was hurt.
They will before long.
They are not alone. Not by a long shot.
The Mississippi River Valley and Ohio River Valley as well as the West Coast are areas of potential danger. The East coast has issues as well.
“One cannot awaken a man who pretends to be asleep.”
I have 4ac along a river in WI. Directly across the river from me is a limestone quarry & kilns that operated in early 1900’s. The old mill is on my property. I’m sitting on limestone. Should I start seeking extra insurance? :eek:
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I just checked the stats for flyover states in comparison of FL and I find your statement flawed. Not to mention the tornadoes and drought that often occurs in your neck of the woods as well.
All places have their fair share of poor weather, crime, disasters.
Can’t argue with the blue comment.
Hey, I’m less than a hundred miles from the Yellowstone Caldera. I got my own problems. 
So when you do any work on your property, besides calling Diggers Hotline, do you have to contact the USGS to make sure you don’t have molten magma 18" below the surface? 
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I think this was soil erosion through water flow, not carbonic acid/calcite erosion. If this was a limestone collapse the house would be a lot deeper in the ground, not still sticking up above the surface.
just my guess, based on what I have seen.
Actually I’m not too worried about it. My house probably has a better chance of caving in because of woodchucks than the limestone. I do have a lot of water flow, though. There’s a river flowing about 30’ from my house.
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Agreed, but most of the sinkhole here are relatively small compared to other places in the country. There was one in the midwest recently that was a a hundred yards+ wide and as deep.
As far as being near Yellowstone, as long as you’re to the west upwind, you should be fine.
Not necessarily. According to all reports, the reason they didn’t attempt the rescue was lack of data: size, depth, dimensions and instability of the sinkhole, as to whether or not it would continued to grow, further endangering the surrounding homes and rescuers. The rescue was deemed not worth the risk.
I asked my friend who is a Tampa Fire Chief about this. He told me that the risk invovled in caved in soil is so great that if just 2-3 cubic yards of soil were to cover you, there is no way they could pull you out without killing you. The only recourse would be to dig and digging isn’t an option in sinkholes.