Sinkholes
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Life Preserver

Swimming pool-sized sinkhole opens in Manchester, New Hampshire

Jenna Abate
NH1.com
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:49 UTC
Manchster New Hampshire sinkhole
© NH1

Residents are being asked to be careful with their water usage after a large water main break early Thursday morning.

The break happened on Bridge Street Extension between Christy Lane and Mission Avenue. The road has been closed since.

"It was like whitewater rafting, like a big dam let go. I guess it's one of the bigger ones with a lot of pressure," Christina Fogarty said.

A large pipe and one of the main arteries on Fogarty's Road flooded the entire Manchester neighborhood. One man shot footage on his cell phone of the water bubbling up from the ground just as crews were getting the water under control.

Crews are still trying to identify the cause of the break. "They don't know," said Bruce Gosselin, the field supervisor of Manchester highways. "It could be just a stress crack on a pipe, and it just decided to let go."

The roads buckled, and a sinkhole the size of a small swimming pool opened up as crews worked to repair the pipe and make the road accessible to local traffic. The process could take days.
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Tractor has near miss with 10-foot wide sinkhole in field at Rehobeth, Alabama

Jim Cook
Dothan Eagle
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:02 UTC
James and Kathy Harrell look over a sink hole that formed on their farm land recently.
© JAY HARE / DOTHAN EAGLE James and Kathy Harrell look over a sink hole that formed on their farm land recently.
A few feet to the right or left and James Harrell could have had a big problem on his hands.

Harrell discovered a 10-foot wide sink hole in his peanut field last week. Just a few days prior, a tractor had been plowing the field and just missed rolling over the area where the hole is located.

"If that tractor had been right here, it could have caved it," he said. "That would have been ugly."

This isn't Harrell's first experience with a sinkhole. About 40 years ago, Harrell drove a combine over a sinkhole on some farm property in Cottonwood.

"The frame of the combine was the only thing that kept it from falling all the way in the hole," he said. "I stepped out of the cab onto the roof and was on the ground."

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Baltimore Public Works inspector injured falling into widening sinkhole

Fern Shen
Baltimore Brew
Tue, 05 Jul 2016 12:56 UTC
Baltimore sinkhole
© Fern Shen/Baltimore Brew
The latest victim of Baltimore's crumbling infrastructure was not just the free flow of traffic but the safety of an inspector examining the latest fallout from it - a large sinkhole that appeared on West Mulberry Street.

A longtime Department of Public Works inspector, on the scene of a collapsed portion of the road between Greene and Paca streets, fell into the hole Monday and was injured, according to DPW spokesman Kurt Kocher. "We thought he might have broken his leg, but I believe it's not broken," said Kocher, who was unable to provide further information on the injured employee, who was sent home from the hospital today.

Baltimore sinkhole
© Baltimore Department of Public WorksEarlier photo (from Monday) of the sinkhole on Mulberry Street, near Paca Street, before it widened.
"The ground collapsed under him," DPW spokesman Jeffrey Raymond said, noting that the hole now stretches "from sidewalk to sidewalk."

Kocher said the sinkhole, roughly 30 feet deep and 40 feet in diameter, was discovered at the site of a 20-inch water main that was recently installed but had not been put into service.

The new water line was to replace an 8-inch main that had broken a few weeks ago and been repaired. "There might have been an additional undetected leach or void created under the road," said Kocher.

That portion of the west-east thoroughfare is covered with concrete. The leakage and erosion might have been detected more quickly if the road surface was asphalt and "the water came bubbling up," Kocher said. On the other hand, Kocher said a hole in the 80-inch sewer main, also located in that spot, could be the culprit. "That could explain where the soil has gone," he said.
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Forklift falls into sinkhole on sidewalk in Ganzhou, China

Ben Hooper
UPI
Fri, 01 Jul 2016 12:19 UTC
Forklift in sinkhole
Forklift in sinkhole
A traffic camera in China captured the moment a sinkhole opened up in a sidewalk and partially swallowed a forklift.

The video, filmed Tuesday, shows the forklift driving across the brick walkway next to a road in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, when a sinkhole opens up underneath the vehicle.

The forklift was almost completely swallowed by the hole, but the driver was not injured.

Authorities said the cause of the walkway's collapse is being investigated.

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Sound 'like thunder' before huge sinkhole devours land just metres from homes near Carmarthen, Wales

Steffan Storch
South Wales Evening Post.
Tue, 28 Jun 2016 12:45 UTC
The 30 foot wide hole has left a storage shed dangling over the edge
The 30 foot wide hole has left a storage shed dangling over the edge
A Carmarthenshire couple's home has been left in a dangerous position after the ground collapsed just meters away from it.

Nearby residents of Towy View Park, off Capel Dewi Road, just outside Carmarthen, said they were woken by a sound like thunder before 7am today.

The sinkhole, approximately 30 foot wide and deep, took away part of the ground underneath an empty storage shed.

Towy View Park is built on the site of a former lead mine.

"It sounded like thunder," said a park resident this morning.

"I couldn't believe someone was doing DIY that early in the morning. But when I went out to walk my dog, I could see it. It's a real worry for us."
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Enormous sinkhole damages car in Colorado Springs, Colorado


KKTV 11 News
Tue, 28 Jun 2016 15:03 UTC
Garden of the Gods sinkhole
© The Gazette
Crews worked Sunday to repair a water main break near Garden of the Gods Road after gushing water caused a sinkhole that damaged a car.

Colorado Springs police say the broken pipe was noticed after 8 a.m. on the 4200 block of Northpark Drive, near Garden of the Gods and Interstate 25.

"One vehicle drove into the sink hole," police said in a news release. "There was minor damage to the vehicle and no injuries were reported."

Colorado Springs Utilities was called to fix the pipe.

"The roadway will be closed to vehicle traffic for several hours while they work on the water main break," police said.
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Sinkholes damage county, city roads in Hanford, California

Mike Eiman
Hanford Sentinel
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 00:30 UTC
Hanford sinkhole
© Mike Eiman/The Sentinel
Officials are asking drivers to stay vigilant as sinkholes start to take a toll on Kings County roads.

County road crews closed a section of Houston Avenue southeast of Hanford after a massive sinkhole opened Sunday night.

Kings County Roads Superintendent Tony Gomes said motorists discovered the sinkhole in the eastbound lane of Houston Avenue, just east of Sixth Avenue, around 9:30 p.m. County roads employees were called shortly after and found a hole that encompassed the entire lane.

Gomes said a big rig reportedly made it through the area unscathed Sunday night. One car got a flat tire, while a second car got three flat tires.

By Monday morning, the hole had grown to three or four times its original size. Gomes said both lanes of Houston Avenue will remain closed between Second and Sixth avenues until further notice. Motorists are being asked to use Highway 198 to bypass the affected area.

"I have never encountered this in 42 years," Gomes said. "We've had squirrel holes and gopher holes that have taken water from the high side of the road and caused erosion until finally the road will dimple down. But only a dimple, not a huge cavity."


Comment: Sinkholes: The groundbreaking truth

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Sinkhole swallows pond at Kentucky golf course

Monique Blair
WKYT
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 22:24 UTC
Golf course sinkhole
© WKYT
Golfers and employees who were at the Old Bridge Golf Course Saturday were in for a surprise.

"It's about three and a half feet wide and about 20 feet deep," Course Superintendent Cody Pollard said.

Pollard says on Saturday, a sinkhole opened under a pond that surrounds the first hole on the course, swallowing most of the pond water.

"My brother called me and said, 'you should look at this'. The pond has literally sunk and there is no water left in it," Pollard explained.

"I came out here and looked at it and there was a geyser throwing water about 15 feet up," Pollard said.

The sinkhole is not affecting the actual course, so golfers can continue to play.

"Everyone thinks it's the highlight of the golf course and now it's gone within a matter of minutes," Pollard said.
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Two giant sinkholes at risk of colliding in Texas claim researchers

Leeanna McLean
The Weather Network
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:22 UTC
sinkholes in Wink, Texas
© Google Maps The Wink sinkholes are about one mile apart.
Just days after a massive sinkhole opened up in the Ottawa downtown core, scientists are now warning that two giant and rapidly expanding sinkholes in Texas are at risk of collapsing into each other.

They are about 2 km apart and sit between the cities of Wink and Kermit in the West Texas oil patch. A population of nearly 7,000 people live in the area.

Satellite radar imagery shows the sinkholes are growing and new ones are forming at an "alarming rate" as nearby subsidence occurs, according to a study recently published in the scientific journal Remote Sensing.

Geophysicists at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas say the area surrounding the two massive sinkholes is unstable, which could lead to the development of one giant sinkhole.

"This area is heavily populated with oil and gas production equipment and installations, hazardous liquid pipelines, as well as two communities. The intrusion of freshwater to underground can dissolve the interbedded salt layers and accelerate the sinkhole collapse," said Jim-Woo Kim, who leads the SMU geophysical team reporting the findings. "A collapse could be catastrophic. Following our study, we are collecting more high-resolution satellite data over the sinkholes and neighboring regions to monitor further development and collapse."
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Sinkhole swallows 3 cars in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Hean Socheata
All Expatt News
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:50 UTC
Onlookers watch the cars sink in a hole by a construction site by Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium after a heavy rain on Wednesday, June 8, 2016.
Onlookers watch the cars sink in a hole by a construction site by Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium after a heavy rain on Wednesday, June 8, 2016.
The onset of monsoon rains in Phnom Penh this week opened a sinkhole on a busy road close to the iconic Olympic Stadium.

The city is thought to be at high risk of sinkholes due to its position astride numerous lakes, which the government has filled in over the years to expand the land on which it can build.

Residents living close to a large skyscraper project next to the sinkhole have become concerned.

Hout Hang, 60, who saw the road collapse during a rainstorm on Wednesday, said he had watched in amazement as the tarmac gave way.

"It just suddenly happened, and three cars fell into the sinkhole," he said. "Luckily the cars were just parked there, otherwise, if people were driving, it would be dangerous and could have killed people," he said.

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