My Town Got Eaten by a Sinkhole!!

I had never really paid much attention to sinkholes until a few days ago, the place right by where I work hit front page newspaper because a 80 foot wide by 50 foot deep sinkhole had eaten a tree, part of the road, and the sidewalk!!  Amazingly, just a few days prior, another sinkhole, not as big, only 8 feet wide and 5 feet deep had closed a road in the same area!!  This had me scratching my head!!

http://www.ocala.com/article/20100829/ARTICLES/100829687/1402/NEWS?Title=Sinkholes-form-at-Fore-Ranch-subdivision

I feel like sinkholes are one of the scariest catastrophes that there  are.  They can predict hurricanes, (to an extent)  predict tornado’s, (shortly before the storm), but a sinkhole… they cannot predict a sinkhole!! 

Sinkholes can be mild.

We see these every day, but don’t really think much of them. 

Then we have the much more obvious ones.

What are sinkholes?  We can’t blame mother nature for this.  In fact, humans are the biggest cause of sinkholes.  We do things such as drilling, mining, lots of weight on a particular area, or a heavy increase of water to an area.  A broken pipe can flood weakened soil causing a sinkhole! 

I read from,

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/sinkhole2.htm

that one of the worst human-caused sinkholes was right here in Florida in 1994!!  People homes here in Florida are starting to crack, showing signs that they are living right on top of a sinkhole!  How scary!!

So what can you do?  If you see a small sinkhole, report it, it may become larger.  If you have cracks in your home, tell someone from the city fast.  Your life is more important than your home!