Florida Sinkhole That Swallowed Man 10 Years Ago Reopens

A sinkhole has reappeared in the same location in a Tampa, Florida, suburb just over a decade after it swallowed a local resident while he slept.

Officials from Hillsborough County stressed that residents of Seffner, located northeast of Tampa, were safe and that the way the hole had been filled before was designed so that it reopened in a predictable location.

The call about the sinkhole was first raised in the early evening on Monday. County officials said in a statement that fire crews and engineers were on site the same afternoon to "determine the extent of the void."

While sinkholes are found worldwide, the potentially deadly phenomenon is more prevalent in Florida due to the makeup of its bedrock. Sinkholes are particularly common in Pasco, Hernando and Hillsborough counties—which are collectively known as the state's "Sinkhole Alley."

Sinkholes are created when moving groundwater creates a cavity under the surface that grows until the ground above it collapses. They can appear naturally or due to burst water mains or leaking sewers.

Florida, and particularly the region around Tampa, sits on a mix of porous carbonate rocks and water-soluble minerals that erode quicker than other rock formations, allowing for a greater number of sinkholes.

Officials said that Hillsborough County sheriffs would be monitoring the site overnight to prevent locals from entering the site and potentially falling in, but that residents had been notified that they were safe to remain in their homes.

John-Paul Lavandeira, director of Hillsborough County's code enforcement division, told reporters that he judged the hole by eye to be around 12 feet by 12 feet wide.

A Hillsborough County spokesperson told Newsweek on Thursday that the hole was 19 feet by 16 feet wide and 19 feet deep. They noted that the sinkhole "doesn't appear to be growing."

The same sinkhole first opened up in February 2013, taking the life of 36-year-old Jeffrey Bush, whose body has never been recovered.

The sinkhole had opened up beneath his bedroom while he slept, according to Tampa news station ABC Action News. Bush's brother, Jeremy, had attempted to save him before being rescued by police, the BBC reported at the time.

The house has since been demolished and a stone plaque marks his death.

The sinkhole was closed but reopened again in 2015, before being closed a second time. But officials said that they had packed the hole in a design that limited the potential danger it posed to the surrounding area by making it more likely to reopen in the same place.

"This is something that is out of all of our control. This is a Mother Nature thing. This isn't a man-made scenario, but we do have a plan in place," Lavandeira said. "There is a reason why there are double fences where this thing is."

He added that among several ways to fill a sinkhole, they had done so using a mix of gravel and liquid, which would fall away due to underground movements easier than the surrounding soil.

"This is not uncommon, what we're seeing out here [with] reoccurrences," Lavandeira explained. "It's actually the preferred way of doing it—the way handled it the first time and the way we filled it. That way, when there's a reoccurrence, it's in a controlled area like you see behind me with the double fences—so we can kind of control the situation."

A Hillsborough County spokesperson said that a decision would be made later on Thursday on whether to use the same technique as before to fill the hole.