"This past Friday, after the heavy rain, the hole opened up a lot larger than it has ever been before, and now it's feet from my home. I contacted the drainage department and the Mayor's office Friday when it happened," said Dean." No one came by, no one called. Monday came; I contacted the drainage department and the Mayor's office. No one came by, no one called. Finally yesterday, Tuesday April 1, someone came and put up a very large fence around our sink hole that is about to swallow two homes."
You can see that other sink holes have popped up in the neighborhood. Across the street from Dean's home there's a smaller sink hole. Next door to that, another sink hole and two more in the front yard of Jason Geddings home. He says the city filled one hole a few months ago, but two more popped up.
"I'm really worried about the kids, because I would hate to see one of them fall into the hole," Geddings said.
I contacted the City of Gulfport Wednesday morning and by midday, Utility Partners had two men on the job.
They connected a robotic camera and placed it down the drainage system to inspect the pipes.
Gulfport Public Works Director Wayne Miller said the problem is a collapsed 30 inch plastic pipe and that the city has a project designed to replace it once two projects ahead of this one are completed.
Dean hopes those two other projects won't take long because time is of the essence.
"It definitely is concerning to me because it is literally a foot, a foot and a half from my home," said Dean. "It is maybe two feet from my neighbor's home, and we are expecting heavy rain coming in this weekend. I'm afraid that it is going to collapse in even further and swallow up my home."
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