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Boulder the size of an elephant crushes entire house and instantly kills two inhabitants in Utah landslide

  • Two storey wooden building was reduced to pile of splinters by huge rock
  • It came rolling down a nearby valley after a landslide near Rockville, Ohio
  • The unsuspecting victims were inside the property when it was flattened
Two people have been killed after a rock slide sent a giant boulder rolling down a valley and onto the roof of their two storey home.

The house in Rockville, Utah, was completely demolished by the rock, which crushed the entire wooden structure of the building, leaving behind a scene of complete devastation.

When emergency services arrived at the scene, shortly after 5pm yesterday, they found the splintered remains of the home buried under the weight of the gigantic boulder which stood at a height of around 15ft.

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Impact: The house, which stood alone in front of a cliff face was crushed by the giant boulder after it was dislodged by the landslide

Bizarro Earth

Large sinkhole opens in Pennsylvania neighborhood

pennsylvania sinkholw
© ABC27News
Emma Lynn Conner was woken up around 5 a.m. by Lower Allen Township Police.

She and others on Deerfield Road were informed that the ground beneath them had once again opened up, this time due to a water main rupture.

What was outside dwarfed anything they had seen before.

By mid-afternoon half of Conner's driveway had been swallowed. By nightfall she told abc27 she feared that the fast-approaching cliff would compromise the entirety of the home that she had been living in for the past 50 years.

Drywall inside of her doorway had even given way.

Though fearful, Conner said with it being two days shy of Thanksgiving, she is mostly thankful no one was hurt.

"I took my car back and forth to the grocery store, to the bank," said Conner. "Cars come down the hill...anyone of us could have dropped into a hole."

Temporary patchwork could be completed within two days. A more permanent solution can not be installed before spring.

Bizarro Earth

Virgina sinkhole swallows car

virginia sinkhole
© Fairfax County ConnectorA car drove into and was stuck in a large sinkhole on Hummer Road and Pleasant Way in Annandale on Monday
A driver drove her car into a sinkhole in Annandale Monday morning, while trying to avoid a tree downed during the winter storm, Fairfax County police said. The aftermath of the accident was captured in a video posted on Facebook by Fairfax Connector.

Police said the 23-year-old woman was traveling northbound on Hummer Road shortly after 7 a.m., when she veered around the tree just south of Pleasant Way. The front end of her car plunged into the water-filled hole and the vehicle was flooded.

The woman was not injured in the crash. Police believe the sinkhole was caused by a water main defect.

"It's not that uncommon with all the freezing and thawing," said Lucy Caldwell, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman.

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Sinkhole swallows car in Bakersfield, California


David Williams said he got a phone call about 5:30 a.m. Friday. His car was partially underground.

Stuart Patteson, Bakersfield Public Works operations manager, said Williams' parked car was swallowed by a sinkhole at 1st and L streets, created by a deteriorated 36-inch sewer trunk line.


Comment: More sinkhole activity in California:
California couple wakes to find sinkhole in yard (March 2013)
US, California: Giant Sinkhole Opens up Near UCSD (Oct 2011)


Patteson said they pulled the car out of the sinkhole and started examining the extent of damage to the sewer line. Repairs will come next.

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Sinkhole nearly swallows pickup truck in Philadelphia

Big hole
© NBC 10/LuAnn CahnA gaping hole in the middle of a city street. Who's responsible?
A huge sinkhole on a city street nearly swallowed a pickup truck this morning, now what?

Now, the Water Department says that a resident of the 900-block of Randolph Street in Northern Liberties has to pay for the repair of the gaping hole that almost swallowed a gray Dodge pickup.

"$2600," says Larisa Dersko.

Comment: What's going on in Philly?

July 2013: Massive sinkhole swallows entire intersection in Philadelphia!


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Sinkhole swallows up truck in Chicago on Thanksgiving

chicago sinkhole
© Chicago Sun Times
  • A pickup fell into a sinkhole in Chicago's South Side area about 8pm on Thursday night
  • One person was trapped inside the vehicle
  • Officials believe a broken water main cause the hole to form
  • It is the second sinkhole to form in the area in two weeks
A broken water main is the suspected cause of a sinkhole that formed in Chicago on Thanksgiving, swallowing a truck and trapping one person inside.

Firefighters had to work to extricate the person after the pickup fell into the hole in the 9500 block of South Commercial Avenue.Police say they received a call for help at 8.06pm.

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45 sinkholes open up in Kaski, Nepal - 50 families displaced so far

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© UjyaaloOnline.Com
At least 45 sinkholes have been reported in Armala in Kaski District of Nepal.

Sinkholes in Armala VDC of Kaski district have displaced more than 50 families in a week.

Sinkholes have swallowed several houses including household belongings like tables, chairs, kitchen utensils, and gas cylinders.

Nearby Riverdel School has also been closed due to the threat of sinkholes, Ujyaalo Online reported.

Geologists have concluded that Kaski, Nepal sinkholes have been caused as a result of haphazard construction of buildings.

Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: Signs of Change in November, 2013

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The Philippines looked like it had been hit by a tsunami once Super-typhoon Haiyan roared through
Major flooding and landslides in India, a massive earthquake off Japan, a ferocious storm thrashing northern Europe, more mass animal die-offs, flash-flooding in Texas taking rivers to their highest levels in 100 years, canals turning red in The Netherlands, meteor fireballs seen the world over, a devastating super-typhoon wiping out parts of the Philippines, a deadly cyclone in Somalia, sinkholes swallowing more homes in Florida, a "second-season outbreak" of deadly tornadoes in the U.S. Midwest... just another month of strange and extreme weather and celestial events on a planet that's rockin' and rollin'.


Bizarro Earth

Massive sinkhole in Bosnia swallows small lake, nearby trees and damages homes

Sanica - Just outside the rustic village, children fished in a tranquil pond bobbing with green algae and lined with willow trees, as cattle grazed nearby. Now, Rezak Motanic gazes in disbelief down a gigantic moonlike crater where the pond used to be. It's like something from a science fiction movie: a sinkhole swallowed the water, the fish and even nearby trees.
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© Amel EmricA huge sinkhole appears in the village of Sanica, Bosnia.
"I sat here only a day before it happened, sipping plum brandy," Cemal Hasan said. "And then, there was panic. Fish were jumping out, and a big plum tree was pulled down like someone yanked it with a hook." The villagers of this remote northwestern Bosnian village have been in shock since the pond vanished two weeks ago.

Their pond was some 20 metres in diameter and about eight meters deep. Now, the "abyss," as the villagers have dubbed the crater, is some 50 metres wide and 30 metres deep - and growing. Scientists say it is not uncommon that ponds and small lakes suddenly disappear. They say it could be caused by drying underground water currents, or changes in soil drainage due to irrigation.

The Sanica villagers, however, are having none of the scientific explanations. "It could have been a giant cave that opened its doors," offered Milanko Skrbic. "Or a volcano."

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Comment: Check out the local resident's comments in this video:

Weird things are happening. Our elders used to say that miracles happen before the doomsday. We just come here to see this miracle.



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Sinkholes open up all over Hawaii, one swallows minivan

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Sinkhole swallows Minivan in Maunawili, Hawaii
A white minivan fell into a sinkhole in Windward Oahu on Thursday night, not long after a separate sinkhole was reported on Ala Lilikoi Street in front of Salt Lake Elementary in Honolulu.

Photographs from the scene showed the rear tire of a minivan stuck inside the road on Aloha Oe Place in Maunawili. Hawaii News Now was told that a water main break may have been to blame for the incident.

The van was pulled out of the ground using a tow truck at around 8:45 p.m.

Earlier on Thursday, another sinkhole was reported in the area fronting Salt Lake Elementary, and road repairs may have an impact on traffic in the area as parents seek to drop their children off at school.

Board of Water supply said they had no reports of any outages in the Salt Lake area, and the cause of the sinkhole there remains unknown.