Man feared dead in 100-foot sinkhole near Tampa

[Dennis Nguyen]

SEFFNER, FLA. A man was missing and feared dead early Friday
after a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house near
Tampa.

His brother says the man screamed for help before he disappeared.

The 36-year-old man's brother, Jeremy Bush, told rescue crews he
heard a loud crash around 11 p.m. Thursday, then heard his
brother screaming for help.

"When he got there, there was no bedroom left," Hillsborough
County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said. "There was
no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking
up."

The brother called 911 and frantically tried to help his
brother. He said he jumped into the hole and dirt was quickly up
to his neck.

"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
said. "But I just couldn't do nothing."

An arriving deputy pulled the brother from the still-collapsing
house.

"I reached down and was able to actually able to get him by his
hand and pull him out of the hole," Hillsborough County
Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duvall said. "The hole was collapsing.
At that time, we left the house."

Engineers worked to determine the size of the sinkhole. At the
surface, officials estimated it was about 30 feet across. Below
the surface, officials believed it was 100 feet wide.

"The entire house is on the sinkhole," Damico said.

Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Rogers told a news briefing
that extra-sensitive listening devices and cameras were inserted
into the sinkhole. "They did not detect any signs of life," he
said.

By early Friday, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials
determined the home had become too unstable to continue rescue
efforts.

Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.

Sinkholes are common in seaside Florida, whose underlying
limestone and dolomite can be worn away by water and chemicals,
then collapse.

Engineers condemned the house, reports CBS Tampa affiliate WTSP.

>From the outside of the small, sky blue house, nothing appeared
wrong. There wear no cracks and the only sign something was
amiss was the yellow caution tape circling the house.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman Larry McKinnon
said authorities asked sinkhole and engineering experts, and
they were using equipment to see if the ground can support the
weight of heavy machinery needed for the recovery effort.

Jeremy Bush stood in a neighbor's yard across the street from
the house Friday and recounted the harrowing collapse.

"He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering
my name to help him," he said of his brother.

Jeremy Bush's wife and his 2-year-old daughter were also inside
the house. "She keeps asking where her Uncle Jeff is," he said.
"I lost everything. I work so hard to support my wife and kid
and I lost everything."

Janell Wheeler told the Tampa Bay Times newspaper she was inside
the house with four other adults and a child when the sinkhole
opened.

"It sounded like a car hit my house," she said.

The rest of the family went to a hotel but she stayed behind,
sleeping in her car.

"I just want my nephew," she said through tears.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57571990/man-feared-dead-in-
100-foot-sinkhole-near-tampa/