FL Brandon, Sinkhole Swallows House, Man Trapped

Coldpizza

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This is happening right now. From the outside you can't really tell but his bedroom got swallowed up while he was sleeping.


Sinkhole opens in Brandon man’s bedroom

21433117_BG3.jpg


When it happened, his brother tried to pull him from the hole. Meanwhile, a deputy had to pull the brother out. Rescuers tried to send a camera and listening device into the hole, but it was swallowed up

Read more: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/...man-swallowed-by-large-sinkhole#ixzz2MI9ofSx8
Follow us: @myfoxtampabay on Twitter | MyFoxTampaBay on Facebook
 
Brandon sinkhole live video: Florida sinkhole swallows man in bedroom, rescue crews at the scene

A man swallowed by sinkhole under his bedroom in Florida is believed dead, authorities said early Friday, after monitoring equipment found no signs of life.

Using radar, engineers determined the sinkhole is about 100 feet in diameter, but it is not visible above ground except from inside the house.
The ground covering the massive cavity is mostly intact, but it could buckle, taking the entire house down with it -- as well as neighboring homes.


http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/nation...lows-man-in-bedroom-rescue-crews-at-the-scene

Florida man swallowed by sinkhole feared dead

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/01/us/florida-sinkhole/index.html
 
I hear you! It is very scary. They just had an interview with the brother that tried to get him out. Heartbreaking...

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/

They've also had to evacuate the neighbors because they think the house could go any time possibly taking other houses down with it.
 
Five adults and a two-year-old child were in the house at the time of the collapse, but no one else was injured.

Lt. Donald Morris from Hillbosourgh County Sheriff's Department described the scene officers found on Friday morning.

'The mattress, the bed, everything was actually going down in the hole where the first person had gone and now the second person is in the hole trying to save the first,' he said.
'And they're not being successful so [the rescuer is] just reacting and doing what they have to do to get that person out. It was deep enough that the person he pulled out to safety was not ale to fully extend their arms and even reach the top.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...de-sinkhole-opened-BEDROOM.html#ixzz2MIGdMWJc
 
Unreal. I hope everyone is very careful, that thing will open wider eventually.
 
This is so disturbing on so many levels for me! I am going to have nightmares.
I sure hope his family will be able to recover emotionally from this. How terribly horrorifying.................
 
My prayers are with everyone...but especially with the man who tried to save his brother. How terrible to live with that.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
It makes me wonder if the home didn't have a concrete slab. If it did, wouldn't the whole house shift and go? Could the force be that hard it breaks up the slab and not affect the rest of the house immediately? I'm going to have to read up on them.
 
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 man has not been heard from since the 20-foot-deep by 20-foot-wide hole opened under part of the Bush family’s Hillsborough County home Thursday night.

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


LATimes:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/...nkhole-tampa-florida-20130301,0,7704950.story


http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-man-swallowed-sinkhole-signs-life-detected/story?id=18626485


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/01/us-usa-florida-sinkhole-idUSBRE9200NH20130301
 
This updated article makes more sense as to how quickly this happened.

Officials: ‘No sign of life’ inside sinkhole

"We heard a loud crash. I ran in there and heard somebody screaming, my brother screaming, and I ran all in there," he said, choking back tears. "And all I see is this big hole. All I see is the top of his bed. I didn't see anything else, so I jumped in the hole and tried digging him out. And I couldn't get him. I could hear him screaming for me, hollering for me."

snip

"I went into the bedroom, and I saw the sinkhole in the entire bedroom," Duvall said. "I saw the family member inside the hole who was trying to get the victim out. I reached out and was able to grab his hand and pull him out of the hole."

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/21433117/2013/03/01/brandon-man-swallowed-by-large-sinkhole

2 videos at link. 1 with the brother.
 
One of the comments on the above article reminded me. I think it was last year around this time when a huge sinkhole opened up on I 4. Many believe some of this is due to the large amounts of water the strawberry farmers use especially when temps get close to freezing. This is more common than you would think, but my husband who has lived here for ions can't recall a human life taken.
 
So sad!

Amazing the other people were able to escape.

Is there any kind of warning before a sinkhole collapses? Like cracks in the home, pesky bugs fleeing or does it just happen in an instant?
 
There is already a thread for this in the Up to the Minute forum:

[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200435"]FL Brandon, Sinkhole Swallows House, Man Trapped - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community[/ame]
 
This sort of thing is always in the back of the mind when one lives in an area in which mining has taken place and whole towns, and not just residences or streets, have been excavated beneath the surface, and no accurate maps survive which really can pinpoint where all of the tunnels go.
 
This sort of thing is always in the back of the mind when one lives in an area in which mining has taken place and whole towns, and not just residences or streets, have been excavated beneath the surface, and no accurate maps survive which really can pinpoint where all of the tunnels go.
There's no mining of anything anywhere even remotely near this city. Mostly orange groves and crops. But mining? In Florida? Nope. Not even close.

Florida sits on limestone. Limestone is easily eroded by water. But my theory (being a native Floridian) is that the limestone creates little pinnacles and we've been sucking the water out from underneath for a long long time - leaving nothing but crusty, brittle, weak points for all this concrete to sit on. Once it goes - it goes.

This one is by far the strangest one. Actually swallowing up a bedroom and leaving the rest of the house intact. And the first human life I've ever heard of being taken by one.

My prayers go out to the family. I hear now they are going to loose the entire house now as well. They will have to demolish it to be able to get to the brother.

Sad.




JMHO





JMHO
 
There's no mining of anything anywhere even remotely near this city. Mostly orange groves and crops. But mining? In Florida? Nope. Not even close.

Florida sits on limestone. Limestone is easily eroded by water. But my theory (being a native Floridian) is that the limestone creates little pinnacles and we've been sucking the water out from underneath for a long long time - leaving nothing but crusty, brittle, weak points for all this concrete to sit on. Once it goes - it goes.

This one is by far the strangest one. Actually swallowing up a bedroom and leaving the rest of the house intact. And the first human life I've ever heard of being taken by one.

My prayers go out to the family. I hear now they are going to loose the entire house now as well. They will have to demolish it to be able to get to the brother.

Sad.
JMHO
JMHO
No, didn't imagine so. Should have made it clear I was speaking from my experience in a place other than Florida.
 
Is this a residential area? It would be terrifying to live near there and have to wonder. The poor guy. I hope they get a bunch of experts in there to make sure the whole is safe or not.
 

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