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Article
and Video Courtesy of ABC Action
News
By WFTS Digital Staff
Published
August 22, 2019
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 Watch
VIDEO
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More than a dozen holes have opened up in the ground
of a Pasco County community.
According to the county, multiple
depressions were assessed in Lakeside Woodlands in
Hudson on Tuesday, August 13. Follow-up site visits were
conducted, and it was discovered that the depressions
have increased in size slightly since the initial
evaluation.
16 to 17 properties are impacted by the holes.
The largest hole in size is 25 feet across, and eight
feet deep -- the Homeowner's Association owns that piece
of land, and they have had a fence around the area for
years.
Emergency Management has contacted surrounding
homeowners, as well as representatives from the
Homeowners' Association. The depressions are on private
property, and the affected parties have been advised to
contact their insurer(s). |
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Neighbors like Pat Johnson said neighbors are scared, "everybody is
watching carefully, and we're just watching the kids that are trying to
peek in the holes."
County Commissioner Jack Mariano was on site on Monday and said in total
he's been told there are 16 holes in this area.
He said there is an underground cavern below the area that USF mapped
out years ago.
"It runs about 9 miles, and it runs right through the heart of Beacon
Woods," Andy Fossa the Emergency Management Director of Pasco County
said. "We started mapping that, and we started following it on the map,
and it actually lines up with these cave systems. So, I'm not a
geologist. I cannot tell if the two are connected. But, with the aquifer
moving in the cave system, the heavy rains that we have, could set up
for these depressions to start."
During a press conference on Monday, a county representative said back
in 2015; there was a large sinkhole in Beacon Woods, a subdivision
nearby -- but, it turned out to be an entrance to one of the caves.
USF looked into the cave system, back then — and found it extends from
State Road 52 to US 19 and it goes out to the Gulf of Mexico.
Only a state or private contractor can call these sinkholes, and one has
not been out to the site to investigate.
The county tells us a geologist would have to determine the cause of the
depressions, so it is unknown at this time the role that last week's
heavy rains played.
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