© Ryan Pelham, Highlands TodayA sinkhole approximately 140 feet wide opened up on Luis and Orpha Hernandez's property on Alphonso Lane in Venus on Thursday afternoon. Luis was standing on the area of the sinkhole when he felt the ground rumble, and within five minutes, a sinkhole approximately 100 feet wide had opened. By Friday afternoon, several feet of water had accumulated in the bottom of the sinkhole.
About 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Luis Hernandez felt the soil trembling beneath his feet.
"He had to run that way," said his wife, Orpha, pointing to the east behind their three-bedroom mobile home.
He heard air coming up, "Whooo, whooo, whooo," Orpha approximated the noise, as if underground air was rushing to the surface.
Luis knows because he looked at the clock on his phone - in just five minutes, a 100-foot wide sinkhole opened in the sand, gulping pots with palm trees and ligustrum hedges and catley guava.
By Friday, they'd rescued all the nursery plants from the one-acre plot, moving them to the adjoining nine acres. But the hole had swelled 20 feet wider, and at 4 p.m. Friday, the circular mouth was an estimated 140 feet across.
"This morning, there was just a little water in it," she said. But by late afternoon, water was three feet deep and rising in the center of the hole.
"We have a pond," she laughed.
The Hernandezes own FloraHome Nursery, just a few of what would be city blocks north of SR 731. Their property backs up to a Lykes Brothers orange grove, which fronts US 27. They sell plants mainly to East Coast customers, but to some as far away as the West Coast.
They saw water being pumped for the adjacent orange grove.
"But of course, we don't know if that caused the sinkhole," Hernandez said.
Highlands County Interim Emergency Operations Management Director Scott Canaday called a state geologist, who agreed.
"There's no way to know unless you dig it up," Canaday said. There's also no way to predict where the next one will occur.
"We've worked hard," said Hernandez, and that's evident from the orderly rows of plants and the well-mown grass around their home and the concrete pad they poured for a patio.
"But God showed his mercy," she said. "Thank God, this didn't happen under our home."
But then she found out from Interim Emergency Operations Management Director Scott Canaday that if the sinkhole gets closer to their home, they may have to move. He told her this was the biggest one he'd seen.
"You hear about these things, but you don't think it will ever happen to you," said Hernandez, whose day job is managing the RE/MAX Realty Plus II office in Lake Placid.
So, what will they do now? Well, Hernandez said she was told, they can fill in the sinkhole - but they'll need a permit.
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