Sinkhole sucks Florida man from his bedroom into the earth

Discussion in 'SHH Community Forum' started by Bim, Mar 1, 2013.

  1. Bim Superhero

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    My god :wow:

    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...rida-man-from-his-bedroom-into-the-earth?lite

    Officials and engineers are searching an unstable area of land after a sinkhole enveloped a Florida man’s bedroom in the middle of the night, sucking him down into the earth.

    The victim, identified by local media as Jeffrey Bush, 36, has not been heard from since he screamed as a 20-foot-deep by 20-foot-wide hole opened underneath his family’s Hillsborough County home late Thursday.

    The sinkhole swallowed part of the interior of the house but left the exterior remarkably intact.

    “They heard a sound they described as a car crash emanating from the bedroom,” Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Rogers said at a Friday morning news conference outside the Seffner, Fla., house. “They rushed in. All they could see was part of a mattress sticking out of the hole. Essentially, the floor of the room had opened.”

    At that point, Jeremy Bush, the missing man's brother, jumped into the hole to try to rescue him, Rogers said.

    Rescue personnel arrived on the scene and were able to free Jeremy, but not Jeffrey. They were forced to abandon the house as the ground continued shifting overnight. Once they came back with an engineering team and better equipment, they resumed their efforts.

    On Friday morning, Rogers refused to discuss the possibility Jeffrey Bush was not alive. “The sooner we can locate the victim and determine his status, the better.”

    However, he added, "We have to make sure we don't endanger other personnel or other people in the process. It doesn't help to compound the situation."

    According to The Tampa Bay Times, there were five adults, one child, and two dogs inside the house when the sinkhole tore through it; all the other members of the household escaped safely and returned on Friday, dazed, as rescue workers worked around the house, The Tampa Bay Times reported.

    "I just wanted to get my brother back," Jeremy Bush told the newspaper of his efforts last night to rescue his brother. "That's all I wanted."

    Standing with his aunt, Janell Wheeler, in front of the house, he added, "I couldn't do anything. Everything in the room was gone."

    Wheeler, clad in her pajamas, said, "It's a dream, right?"

    Flanking the county's fire chief at Friday's news conference in front of the Bush home was Bill Bracken, president of Bracken Engineering, a Florida-based firm called in to assist with the rescue. Bracken told reporters that while the sinkhole itself was 20 feet wide, its “safety zone” – the land around it that was considered unstable – extended out 100 feet.

    “It started in the bedroom and has been expanding, taking the house with it,” he said.

    Engineers are capturing three-dimensional photos of the soil and receiving other data to figure out the best way to stop the spread of the sinkhole, Bracken said.

    Despite the home's instability, photos of the neighborhood showed little destruction.

    Ultimately, it looks just like a normal neighborhood," Hillsborough County spokesman Willie Puz said. "The sinkhole is still under the footprint of the home itself. You can’t see anything from the exterior. There’s been a lot of helicopters that have been flying overhead, but if you look down, it just looks like a normal house and neighborhood.”

    The Bush family and neighbors on both sides have been evacuated and are receiving assistance from The Red Cross. Officials did not know if the neighborhood, located near Tampa, has had problems with sinkholes in the past.

    Sinkholes are relatively common in Florida, but do not always cause injury or major disruption.

    "Florida is made out of limestone. There's a lot of groundwater that goes through the limestone and can erode the limestone away. As the water table rises and falls, sometimes those voids in the limestone can't support the weight that is on top of them, and they cave in," Puz said, adding that there are numerous other scenarios that can cause sinkholes.

    Some sinkholes form depressions in the ground first; some collapse immediately. In this family's case, Puz said, "it happened very quickly," but officials don't know what processes were happening underground, and for how long, before the sinkhole ripped open their home.

    Officials were not able to give an estimate of how much larger this particular sinkhole could grow to be.

    "A lot of it just depends on what's going on way below us," Rogers said at Friday's news conference. "The question really is what's down there, and how much earth is it going to take to fill it? That's what we're trying to gather with the equipment we brought in."
     
  2. ThePhantasm 2 sexy 4 a stormtrooper

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  3. NickNitro Extra Terrestrial

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    Years later, he shall resurface to take vengance on the world!!!!

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Lily Adler Politically Delicious (she/her)

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    Now I'm freaked out and sad that we didn't get The Incredibles sequel. :(
     
  5. Duke Avenger

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    This is tragic & unfortunately these type of things are unpredictable.
     
  6. James Built from Lego

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    I was giddy to read a weird-tale about a guy who woke up underground or something, but this is just sad. Poor dude probably suffocated under the dirt and had no freakin' idea what just happened.
     
  7. ThePhantasm 2 sexy 4 a stormtrooper

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    On the news it said he was screaming for someone to help him, but they couldn't. So he at least knew the place collapsed and he was trapped. Its very tragic.
     
  8. NickNitro Extra Terrestrial

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    Really sad, it would of just been better if he fell and hit something to die quickly you know? waking up buried underground has to be the most terrifying experience.

    In my prayers.
     
  9. warhorse78 Sidekick

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    Sadly, it is a fear in the back of my mind, in that sink holes here in Florida are just as much of a threat as hurricanes and tornadoes.
     
  10. NickNitro Extra Terrestrial

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    I live in FL as well...this makes me worried
     
  11. Brain Damage Everything Under the Sun

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    Jesus... this is a horrible way to go. Hope he'll make it outta there but it seems unlikely.

    Does home owner's insurance cover something like this..?
     
  12. Piper Maru Guest

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    Tremors? Like the movie with Kevin Bacon?
     
  13. tzarinna Mamochka

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    It was the first thing I saw this morning, among other frighting news images. I wasn't sure I should leave the house.
     
  14. Marvolo Avenger

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    I feel the need to be overly optimistic and say that he is in an air pocket underground waiting out resue surviving on ground water and some unsavory critters. What a tragedy.:(
     
  15. bullets bang bang

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  16. Darthphere Kneel before 'Drox!

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    Limestone man.
     
  17. CastlesInTheAir Civilian

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    Does anybody have an idea of how deep the sinkhole is? Does it stop somewhere or does it keep going to the centre of the earth?
     
  18. Ultimatehero Life is infinite

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    I can see someone in Hollywood running with this idea in a film. A portal to another world or something like that. That's just my Hollywood brain at work. My regular brain, yeah - this was really tragic.
     
  19. Nell2ThaIzzay Avenger

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    It's like that scene in the Simpsons Movie in real life.
     
  20. Xeno That's America's ass!

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    This is a tragic and frightening story. The brother who tried to rescue the man was obviously traumatized and devastated afterwards. I can't imagine seeing something like that happen to one of my siblings and being helpless to do anything.
     
  21. TheDreamMaster The Night He Came Home...

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    They game up the search. Man, absolutely terrifying.
     
  22. Marvolo Avenger

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    They've called off the search and demolished the house. They said the body is at least 150 feet down and there is no way he could survive. Even if he did survive they can't get to him because the hole continues to expand and collapse faster than they can dig.

    This poor person was buried alive. An absolutely terrifying and horrific way to die.
     
  23. James Built from Lego

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    There seriously aren't many worse ways to go. I really feel for the family, there's nothing quite like a random senseless death to shake your world.
     
  24. CastlesInTheAir Civilian

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    Thanks Obama. Ban video games.
     
  25. Marvolo Avenger

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    :confused:
     

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