Man's body to remain under Seffner sinkhole home
Source: Tampa Tribune
Hillsborough County will begin demolishing the home in Seffner on Sunday, and the body of Jeff Bush will remain underneath.
County Administrator Mike Merrill said it is not possible to recover the body and the entire area remains unstable. He said the family has received food, clothing and shelter from the Red Cross.
"Losing Jeff is what hurts the most," said Buddy Wicker, after hearing the news that his house will be torn down. "But I don't want anyone else getting hurt. There's been enough hurt."
Earlier, residents are being evacuated from other two homes near the house where Jeff Bush was swallowed by a sinkhole as he slept.
Read more: http://www2.tbo.com/news/brandon/2013/mar/02/34/crews-monitor-sinkhole-that-swallowed-seffner-man-ar-647998/
(ETA) MadFloridian provides scientific context for why sinkholes happen in her state.
undeterred
(34,658 posts)I can't imagine what it must have been like for the other people in the home. They will be reliving it for a long time.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)the Earth literally opened up ans swallowed him
undeterred
(34,658 posts)if you are in a dangerous area. What do you do once its happened to the guy next door?
rexcat
(3,622 posts)is sink holes can just happen. There are no warning signs prior to the event and is a common occurrence. If you ever fly over Florida the round lakes are created by sink holes. Some can be very large.
I took a limnology class (study of fresh water systems) at UCF my senior year and we only went to one sinkhole lake becasue the ecology, for the most part, is the same for all of them. The professor I had was more interested in the other types of lakes in the region because the ecology of those lakes were varied.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)Orrex
(63,224 posts)Whatever happens, the banks and mortgage lenders will be protected, and isn't that really the bottom line?
csziggy
(34,137 posts)He was a mining engineer and prospected for phosphate by drilling and taking core samples. A builder wanted him to drill the sites for some houses and give an educated opinion about the possibility of sinkholes under those sites in the future. Dad refused the job even though he needed work at the time.
A couple of houses were lost in a sinkhole in a neighborhood in my home town, Bartow, Florida. Fortunately, no one was killed as the people had enough warning to get out and were able to salvage most of their belongings. Today, that neighborhood is still occupied and I would bet few of the people living there know that they are living in a place where a sinkhole swallowed a house and a half.
Sinkhole that formed was 520 feet long, 125 feet wide, and 60 feet deep. Bartow, Polk County, Fla. May 22, 1967. (Photo courtesy of USGS)
The problem is that the Karst geology of the area is underlying limestone honeycombed with caverns any one of which can collapse at any time. It just depends on whether the cavern is filled with water, how much of the roof of the cavern is still supported by the underlying structures, and how brittle the limestone is when it is dry.
Dad's recommendation was to build a wide spread house and make the foundation strong enough that if a sinkhole opened under one part of the house, the foundation would support the floor and allow the house to be dragged out of the sinkhole! Most houses in that part of Florida are either on piers that are just set on the surface of the ground (like the house I grew up in) or are poured slabs of concrete with little structural integrity to the slab (which seems to be the type of house the man was killed in).
Today with ground penetrating techniques, shallow caverns under the ground could be located but some of the sinkholes form when caverns much deeper collapse. I'm not sure how deep technology can go.
JI7
(89,264 posts)and they said the place was safe from sink holes . if this is true they should be sued.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)nevertheless I have to admit that one of my first thoughts on hearing this story was
"Wrong Bush."
I now profoundly apologize to all those I have offended.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)colorado_ufo
(5,737 posts)caseymoz
(5,763 posts)If he didn't suffocate in the mud. The odds are very, very low he could have survived.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)there have been no sounds picked up compatible with life for days now.
In all likelihood he suffocated in the mud long ago.
Some years ago I read a horror story of a Florida nurse who came home and found his barn in a sinkhole, with 2 horses trapped. The fire department tried desperately to rescue the horses. Both horses ultimately went under while their person watched crying, screaming and begging for their rescue.
I think struggling to get out just sinks you deeper, yet you instinctively struggle to get out...
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)It sounds like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe story.
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/eapoe/bl-eapoe-premature.htm
Beacool
(30,251 posts)Bad enough to lose their loved one, but now they will never be able to have a proper funeral.
My heart goes out to them. May he rest in peace.
penndragon69
(788 posts)Unfortunately, if you fill in a swamp to create usable land and then
suck out all the ground water from below, the swamp will take it's
lake back.
Another reason to stay away from florida....Gators, Pythons and
killer sink holes.
Matariki
(18,775 posts)How do they know?
cali
(114,904 posts)to detect signs of life. They found none.
Supply Side Jesus
(2,528 posts)so sad for the family...