Florida Sinkhole Opens Under House, Authorities Searching for Man Who Fell In
The search for a man presumed dead after a giant sinkhole opened up underneath his house is continuing in Florida, where sinkholes have been a common occurrence.
Jeff Bush was sucked into a sinkhole that appeared underneath the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home. Relatives tried desperately to save him before they were forced to evacuate the residence.
"I heard a loud crash, like a car coming through the house," Jeremy Bush, the man's brother, told WFTS.
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"I heard my brother screaming and I ran back there and tried going inside his room, but my old lady turned the light on and all I seen was this big hole, a real big hole, and all I saw was his mattress," he added.
Jeremy Bush was able to escape along with a 2-year-old child and three other people as authorities frantically searched for the missing man. They used cameras to look for any signs of a body, but have yet to recover any evidence.
This is not the first sinkhole that the state has experienced, but it is a rather large one. It measures 100 feet wide and may be as deep as fifty feet, authorities stated. The house is still standing and it continues to cover the sinkhole, but police evacuated nearby residents in case the sinkhole expands.
"I know in my heart he's dead," Bush said. "But I just want to be here for him, because I love him, he was my brother, man."
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection revealed that sinkholes are common occurrence in the sunshine state due to the makeup of material below the Earth's surface.
Beneath Florida's ground is bedrock that is composed of limestone that can be eroded away by acidic groundwater, which hollows out a hole that will cause the surface to collapse once the void becomes too great.
