Brooklyn Sinkhole Nearly Swallows Mother, Daughter, and Car
'We're So Blessed,' Says Mom
A Brooklyn sinkhole 30 feet wide and 10 feet deep split open a Bay Ridge street Wednesday, nearly swallowing a woman and her car into the earth. Luckily, Annette Flood, her daughter, and her car weren't taken by the dark pit that opened suddenly.
The Brooklyn sinkhole appeared at about 6 p.m.- right around the time Flood was getting home from work. A couple minutes' difference kept her family and pet safe.
"I was coming home from work and we parked the car," she began, recounting the story to ABC News. "Normally we're in the driveway but my daughter just pulled to the curb. I put the leash on the dog and we walked out the door. When we opened the door we said 'Oh!' We just missed it."
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"The car was just hanging in the hole," she added.
The sinkhole, caused by a sewer main breaking underneath the road, could have been much worse. Flood maintained that she was "blessed" not to have been hurt- or anyone else being a victim of the sudden, gaping pit.
"We're so blessed. If we were five minutes later or anything we could have been in the hole," she said.
The sinkhole unfortunately isn't the first to hit Bay Ridge recently. Earlier this summer, another pit split opened, but it was much bigger- the 60-foot hole occurred June 28.
"That makes you a little nervous about the streets in the neighborhood," Paul Muccigrosso, a 41-year-old bystander, told The New York Times. "And you know what? This is one of the prettiest blocks in the neighborhood," he said, referring to the 79th street collapse.
"How do you even fix this?" he asked.
There is no quick solution, although the fire department did arrive to take Flood's car out of harm's way. Construction crews are currently working on the hole, filling it with the dirt that had eroded away and fixing the leaking main. They are expected to finish by the end of the weekend.
