Sinkhole swallows Florida man alive!

[cyberdude558]

SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) — Engineers worked gingerly to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could eventually succumb to the unstable ground.

Jeff Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy.

Engineers were expected at the home to do more tests after sunrise Saturday. They spent the previous day on the property, taking soil samples and running various tests — while acknowledging that the entire lot was dangerous. No one was allowed in the home.

"I cannot tell you why it has not collapsed yet," Bill Bracken, the owner of an engineering company called to assess the sinkhole, said of the home. He described the earth below as a "very large, very fluid mass."

"This is not your typical sinkhole," said Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill. "This is a chasm. For that reason, we're being very deliberate."

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The sinkhole, estimated at 20 feet across and 20 feet deep, caused the home's concrete floor to cave in around 11 p.m. Thursday as everyone in the Tampa-area house was turning in for the night. It gave way with a loud crash that sounded like a car hitting the house and brought Bush's brother running.

Jeremy Bush said he jumped into the hole but couldn't see his brother and had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy who reached out and pulled him to safety as the ground crumbled around him.

"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," Jeremy Bush said through tears Friday in a neighbor's yard. "But I just couldn't do nothing."

He added: "I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him."

A dresser and the TV set had vanished down the hole, along with most of Bush's bed.

A sheriff's deputy who was the first to respond to a frantic 911 call said when he arrived, he saw Jeremy Bush.

Deputy Douglas Duvall said he reached down as if he was "sticking his hand into the floor" to help Jeremy Bush. Duvall said he didn't see anyone else in the hole.

As he pulled Bush out, "everything was sinking," Duvall said.

Engineers said they may have to demolish the small house, even though from the outside there appeared to be nothing wrong with the four-bedroom, concrete-wall structure, built in 1974.

Jeremy Bush said someone came out to the home a couple of months ago to check for sinkholes and other things, apparently for insurance purposes.

"He said there was nothing wrong with the house. Nothing. And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole," Bush said.


http://news.yahoo.com/fla-sinkhole-swallowed-man-grows-deeper-082431378.html

[gbobucsfan]

I was reading this article yesterday and was thinking how terrible it was, but if there was ever a sign that it was your time to go....it would be getting swallowed by a sinkhole while sleeping.

[Oracle]

that would suck

[John Galt?]

Bad thread title. Jeff Bush died, so it didn't "swallow Florida man alive"

[olafberserker]

I think my insurance rates just doubled again

[Kodiak]

Bad thread title. Jeff Bush died, so it didn't "swallow Florida man alive"

Technically he died after it swallowed him so the title is accurate. Once burried...he would probably die a few minutes later due to lack of oxygen. Also, his brother said he heard screams coming from under the dirt and rubble so it probably took a bit before he suffocated.

[Morgan]

Bad thread title. Jeff Bush died, so it didn't "swallow Florida man alive"

Technically he died after it swallowed him so the title is accurate. Once burried...he would probably die a few minutes later due to lack of oxygen. Also, his brother said he heard screams coming from under the dirt and rubble so it probably took a bit before he suffocated.

Blasphemy. No one questions what the great JG posts. Who do you think you are?