Nadia Higgins - Sinkholes

Sinkholes

Nadia Higgins

Im definitely haunted by that night, Maggie Ghamry said. The date was August 11, 2013. Maggie was vacationing at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, Florida, just down the road from Walt Disney World. It was a typical August evening at the resort. Tourists in tank tops and flip flops settled into their rooms. Energetic children slammed doors and ran up and down the halls.

Florida is known as the Sunshine State. These days, its also gaining fame as the nations sinkhole capital.

At first, Maggie figured that the commotion she was hearing was just some kids outside her door. The floor shook, and there were strange popping noises. Then she heard windows breaking. Next thing I knew, people are yelling, Get out of the building! Get out the building! Maggie said.

The evacuation of the Summer Bay Resort started at about 10:30 p.m. The disaster seemed to come out of nowhere. In reality, the sinkhole had been forming for years underground.

Some people threw their belongings off balconies before they rushed out. One woman ran straight from the tub when it bounced into the air. Another couples door wouldnt open because the frame collapsed. They climbed out of their window with their baby.

It almost seemed like the building was , turning in a vortex, as if being consumed in quicksand. It was so surreal, Maggie said.

As everyone fled, one person rushed from room to room. Security guard Richard Shanley remembers the ceiling falling down around him as he ran through the halls, searching for stragglers. Thanks to Richard, all 36 guests escaped the building shaken but unharmed. Some 40 minutes later, the three-story building crumbled into a sinkhole the size of a football field.

Fast Fact

Sinkholes are also known as sinks, swallow holes, and dolines.

If you live in Florida, you may have heard sinkhole stories. The state gets more sinkholes than just about any other place on Earth, about 17 per day. But even for native Floridians, the sinkhole at Summer Bay Resort was a shock.

A sinkhole is a lot like what it sounds like. The surface layer of the Earth sinks into an underground hole. Thankfully, though, these events are usually slow-moving. You might notice a sinkhole growing for months or years. The sinkhole at Summer Bay Resort was a terrifying exception.

This collapse sinkhole in a salt dome opened in Daisetta, Texas, in 2008. Salt can dissolve rapidly, which leads to large, bowl-shaped craters. In this case, the injection of fluids into the salt dome caused a 60 foot (18.3 meter) sinkhole to open. It covered multiple acres and destroyed several structures.

Luckily, no one died that August day. Once in a great while, a sinkhole can be deadly. In February 2013, a sinkhole opened up under Jeff Bush's bedroom floor in Seffner, Florida.

An overhead view of Jeff Bushs ruined home shows the sinkhole that opened up under his bed. Here, officials have filled the deadly sinkhole with crushed rock.

At the sound of screams, Jeremy Bush ran to his brother's room, flung open the door, and turned on the light. All I saw was this big, massive hole, he said. Jeff Bush had been swallowed up as he slept in his bed. The hole was so deep, he was gone forever.

Jeff Bush was only the fourth person ever to be killed by a Florida sinkhole. Unlike other natural disasters, sinkholes are localized. To get hurt, you pretty much have to be on top of a sinkhole when it collapses. In fact, the odds of getting killed by a sinkhole are far lower than getting struck by lightning.

Jeff Bushs bizarre and sudden death was especially shocking to his brother, Jeremy Bush, who was also home when the sinkhole collapsed. Here, Jeremy and Rachel Wicker grieve for Jeff at at a memorial service.