An expanding sinkhole near a lake north of Tampa has already swallowed two homes and was threatening others on Friday, but no one has been injured, authorities said.
Eleven homes, including those taken by the sinkhole, were evacuated as a precaution and two pets were rescued from one of the houses that fell into the sinkhole, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Department said.
When it was first reported to authorities on Friday morning, the sinkhole was a small depression under a boat in the lakeside neighborhood in Land O’ Lakes, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Tampa and about 25 miles east of the Gulf of Mexico.
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It had already sucked in the boat by the time firefighters arrived 15 minutes later, said Kevin Guthrie, assistant Pasco County administrator for public safety.
By late Friday morning when Guthrie spoke with reporters, the sinkhole was 200 feet wide (61 metres) and 50 feet (15 metres) deep. By mid-afternoon, it as wide as 250 feet (76 metre) and remained 50 feet deep, and the rate of expansion was five to 10 feet per hour, Guthrie said at a second news conference.
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Guthrie said there was concern the hole could expand to a lake near the homes and if so, geologists fear it could widen significantly in a matter of minutes.
“We’re now at a situation where we’re trying to conserve property, but Mother Nature is going to take what Mother Nature is going to take,” Guthrie said.
Geologists at the University of Florida have defined a sinkhole as typically being a natural depression or hole in the Earth’s surface caused when rock, often limestone in Florida, is dissolved over time.
Guthrie said a 50-foot-deep sinkhole occurred five years ago at the site of one of the swallowed homes.