# Florida Man Swallowed by Sinkhole While in Bedroom



## Matt308 (Mar 1, 2013)

What a nightmare! Stephen King couldn't make this up.

Sinkhole sucks Florida man from his bedroom into the earth - U.S. News


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## mikewint (Mar 1, 2013)

Unbelievable Matt, what an epitaph "swallowed by the earth"


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## Matt308 (Mar 1, 2013)

You know you could make all kinds jokes from that headline, but imagine the horror of that! Literally falling into hell. Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.


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## mikewint (Mar 1, 2013)

Agreed, guesomely funny in one sense but the reality: peacefully asleep then falling into a black hole to be crushed and suffocated


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## Readie (Mar 1, 2013)

Must have a big hole if the average size of Americans is too be believed


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## Marcel (Mar 1, 2013)

I don't understand. It says it's a 20ft wide and 20 ft deep hole. In my calculation that's about 6 meter wide and 6 meters deep. While that is a big hole, I fail to understand how this guy can be missing in that hole and they cannot locate him.


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## mikewint (Mar 1, 2013)

it is not just a hole, sinkholes form when flowing underground water washes away the subsoil. Gradually the top layer thins out and collapses into a very large underground cavern. It is also seldom one collapse but a series of continous collapses much like an avalanche as the edges/rim is destabilized


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## Njaco (Mar 1, 2013)

> Cables from a television led down into the hole, but the TV set, along with a dresser, was nowhere to be seen.



At least he didn't miss "Survivor"......................


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## Wayne Little (Mar 2, 2013)

On the news tonight...fricken unbelievable....


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## N4521U (Mar 2, 2013)

That's a bit of a worry eh?
By the photograph, it's not just the hole, it's all the crap that followed him in!!!!!!!


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## Lucky13 (Mar 2, 2013)

Imagine with all them old empty mines....


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## Matt308 (Mar 2, 2013)

They are now saying it is 30ft in diameter and over 100ft deep and expanding. An engineering firm working with the local fire department (for just these such instances) are using ground penetrating radar and believe the house will eventually be swallowed. Houses around this house have also been evacuated. Scary *hit man.


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## Marcel (Mar 2, 2013)

Thanks for the explanation Paul. 

30ft means 10 meter. Meaning that the house is in already I think? Scary indeed.


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## Matt308 (Mar 2, 2013)

Still standing as of this morning, but apparently it is but a shell. They have cordoned off the house about 100ft in radius from the center of the sinkhole.


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## Gnomey (Mar 2, 2013)

Scary sh*t. Must say I had a chuckle until I read he died though...


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## Matt308 (Mar 2, 2013)

Oh has that been determined? I know it is assumed, but didn't realize that there was an official statement. I thought they were waiting for Beelzebub to nail the proclamation on the upside down Jesus statue.


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## Gnomey (Mar 2, 2013)

Nothing definite other than the assumptions but I can't see that much hope for him, unless he found an air pocket.


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## Matt308 (Mar 2, 2013)

You got that right.


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## Njaco (Mar 2, 2013)

The Township engineer has no answer why the house is still standing. How does this 'engineer' still have his job?


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Mar 2, 2013)

Chris, it's not what you know, but who you know.


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## Matt308 (Mar 2, 2013)

I can understand the answer. Until the edges of the sinkhole exceed the footings of the house, you could lose all the flooring the whole house and likely not have it collapse with no live load on the inside bearing surfaces. Kinda like a dome supported at the edges and the loads bearing on the upper structure. No internal live loads and it is a static load bearing standoff.


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## meatloaf109 (Mar 3, 2013)

Florida is one big sandbox. What isn't sandstone is swamp. About 10 years ago I moved a family out of a house that had cracked down the middle because the ground under half of it was giving way. Multi-million dollar place, mind you. Just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. I have always called that place "god's waiting room". They will keep building and pumping ground water out until the entire state collapses.


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