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5 sinkholes open near Tarpon Springs house

By NORA KOCH and DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD
Published March 7, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - Five sinkholes have opened near a house west of Whitcomb Bayou in Tarpon Springs.

Homeowner Carol White, 41, was leaving her home at 704 Crimson King Trace to take her son to school when she noticed the sinkholes early Friday morning, according to her mother, Millie Tonno.

Three sinkholes appeared in the front yard, near the driveway and porch. The largest is about 12 feet across and 7 feet deep. About 3 feet away, there's a 4-foot-wide sinkhole that's about 12 feet deep. A third sinkhole, bordering the driveway, is about 5 feet from the second one and is 5 feet across and 5 feet deep.

A fourth sinkhole opened under a sidewalk, and a fifth formed near where the driveway meets the street. City workers have filled those two holes. A private company is working today to stabilize the ground under the home.

After seeing the sinkholes, White called Tarpon Springs Fire Rescue, which told her to grab some clothes quickly and get out of the house. She, her husband David and their 10-year-old son Joseph are staying at a hotel on U.S. 19, and the family's three pets are in a kennel. The Whites have lived at the home for 15 years.

When White returned to the home Friday afternoon, the earth was noticeably unstable, Tonno said.

"She could hear the ground still going down, so what do you do?" Tonno said.

The home is about three-quarters of a mile west-northwest of an area where several other large sinkholes opened in recent years.

In September 2003, a sinkhole 60 feet by 40 feet wide and 40 feet deep opened up in the rough next to the eighth fairway at the Tarpon Springs Golf Course. Minutes later, two more sinkholes appeared on the eighth green and near a sand trap. Each of those measured about 20 feet wide and 20 feet deep.

In November 2002, a sinkhole swallowed a condo owner's bedroom in the Green Dolphin Condominium Villas, which are next to the golf course. That hole left several residents homeless for days. At least one of the buildings of the Green Dolphin Villas was built atop a construction debris sinkhole in 1983. Cracks began showing in the walls four years later.

Sinkholes form when groundwater gradually dissolves the limestone that underlies much of Florida's landscape, creating spaces in the earth. Once the underground cavities form, the ground over them can collapse. Sinkholes can be triggered by long droughts followed by heavy rains, strong vibrations or other factors.

[Last modified March 7, 2005, 11:44:02]