A Home Owner's Insurance Adjustor's Nightmare

[MA-Caver]

Holy Holes Batman! I'd think twice about living out in the Ozarks if I were you.
This guy lost his car and his garage when a sinkhole opened up underneath. Now the hole is expanding. The main story (with pictures click 'em to enlarge) http://news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060814/NEWS01/608140373
and the follow-up story with another pic of the expanding hole... http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060815/NEWS01/608150380/1007

Nixa --As Norm Scrivener finished the front section of his Sunday paper, a mammoth sinkhole swallowed his garage and the 2001 Chevy Cavalier inside.
"I thought a tornado had hit. I heard ripping and cracking," Scrivener said. "Then I thought a plane or drunk driver hit the house."
The garage ripped away from the house at 327 N. Delaware taking a chunk of roof and several feet of driveway with it.
At least six houses in the neighborhood were evacuated as geologists, engineers and emergency personnel surveyed the area.
The sinkhole had most people baffled and neighbors worried.
Neighbors watched as one official slowly climbed on all fours on a fire truck ladder, which extended horizontally over the gorge, to try to measure its depth.
The crater was 75 feet deep and 50 to 60 feet in diameter, Bob Pavlowsky, who teaches geography at Missouri State University, told a News-Leader photographer.

 

[shesulsa]

:uhoh: :flushed:

Damn.

 

[stone_dragone]

umm.....wow.

 

[Swordlady]

That is some crazy stuff. Shows that the unexpected can happen any time.

 

[Kacey]

Yowch... I'm going to have to go check my house's foundation now...

 

[Jade Tigress]

Whoa...that is unbelievable...

 

[ajs1976]

It almost looks fake. Like a scene from a thriller like Volcano or Twister.

 

[matt.m]

Oh boy does that suck.

 

[BrandiJo]

oh man thats really sucks...and i thought i was having a bad day
​

 

[MA-Caver]

It almost looks fake. Like a scene from a thriller like Volcano or Twister.

Yeah it's surreal to see it but I've seen such things in Utah (but without houses under them) and they can appear that quick and get THAT big. The articles are from the local paper... if it is fake it'd be a pretty durn good hoax. But chances are it ain't.

Of course the caver part of me wonders what lies beneathe? :uhyeah: Missouri is known to have well over a thousand caves.

Update: Extent of sinkhole remains elusive; relief fund established

By Mike Penprase
Springfield News-Leader

A geologist with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources said today tests to determine the depth of a sinkhole that swallowed much of a Nixa man?s house did not provide information on the sinkhole?s makeup. Underground utility lines could have interfered with the test equipment, Peter Price said.

Meanwhile, a relief fund to help people whose insurance might not cover losses from the sinkhole?s appearance has been started.

Donations can be made to the Sinkhole Relief Fund at Great Southern branches in Nixa, Nixa Fire Department chaplain Steve Martin said.

 

[ajs1976]

I don't think its fake, the picture just made me think about the movies Volcano and Twister and how this could be a big movie next summer.

You have a city that starts having some problems with sink holes. Enter the older lead male actor whose character is having some woman issues. You team him with a hot blond scientist who is a little to crazy about her area of study. Teaming them up causes some sexual tension. They get a little to close to the sink hole and all of a sudden it gets a personality and comes after them. Queue the suspenseful soundtrack and there can be an exciting chase scene at the end of the movie were the heros escape as half town falls into the whole. Only half though, you need someplace to put all the people that they saved. If it is done right, Ford, Chevy or Dodge will pay to have their trucks featured in the movie.

Volcano had an eruption in the tar pits and lava on the streets of LA. Twister had flying cows and combines. Imagine all the cool stuff that could fall into a sink hole.

(Yeah, I have been thinking about that one since I read the article today)

 

[MA-Caver]

UPDATE -- Hole keeps getting bigger and the house keeps getting eaten!
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060819/NEWS01/608190384/1007/NEWS01

They're wanting to fill it in. Can't blame them ... but geez let guys like me and other cavers go check out what's going on down in there... out:

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Wow, that is simply amazing. I would hate for that to be my house!

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

 

[Cryozombie]

Wow, that is simply amazing. I would hate for that to be my house!

Yeah? Cuz I was kinda thinking "Damn, why couldnt that be my house"

 

[Kreth]

but geez let guys like me and other cavers go check out what's going on down in there... out:

You might want to wait until the house is done falling in... :lol:

 

[KenpoSterre]

scarry thought is that I live very close to the area where it happened. the hole is a thirty minute drive from my house.

if you click on the link and the picture of the hole in the top right corner. The white speck is his CAR.

 

[MA-Caver]

UPDATE:

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060827/NEWS01/608270377/1007
More remains of home fall in sinkhole
More of the remains of a house hanging over a sinkhole in Nixa fell into the pit Friday, and rainstorms expected to continue through the weekend could cause more material to fall into the sinkhole, a consultant working with the city said.
He anticipates the city will finish plans to fill the sinkhole with boulders and soil early next week and that a bid process for contractors interested in doing the infill work will begin then.

KenpoSterre the picture/link didn't work. FYI.