Orlando Sinkhole Destroys Three Story Condo Building In Night

[ricki]

A frame grab from an aerial video of the Summer Bay Resort sinkhole from:
http://www.npr.org/



An aerial video

The story:

"Vacationers staying in a luxury villa in central Florida awoke to creaking and crashing sounds last night, as the three-story building they were staying in began to collapse. A large portion of the structure was pulled into a sinkhole at the Summer Bay Resort near Disney World; it seems that the process was slow enough that it allowed everyone in the building to evacuate safely.

Striking images from the scene show a building that seems to have crumbled toward its center. Perched next to a pond, the villa's edifice sheared Sunday night in a way that left the remaining wall and windows largely intact.

After the villa's supports began to crack and tear apart, its windows began to blow out, twisted by the forces pulling it downward. Guests had 10 or 15 minutes to get out of the building, reports. The newspaper says about 20 people, including children, had been staying in the villa's rental apartments.

"One person had to break out of a window because the door frame collapsed. He, his wife and an infant, he had to break the window so they could escape," Maggie Ghamry tells . "There were windows breaking everywhere. One woman was sitting in the tub and the tub levitated and that's when she just grabbed a pair of shorts and came out with nothing. So, it was the most surreal experience I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams."

The evacuation was completed moments before the building's foundation buckled and it began to settle into the sinkhole, reports The Sentinel, which also says guests left behind nearly all their belongings. Officials say those who had to evacuate are being moved into another villa on the same property."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...paign=20130812

and




"First came the cracking sounds. Then windows started blowing out. And before they knew it, guests felt the ground beneath their Lake County resort near Disney World sink into the ground.

Guests had only 10 to 15 minutes to escape the collapsing buildings at the Summer Bay Resort on U.S. Highway 192 in the Four Corners area, located about 7 miles west of Walt Disney World resort, where a large sinkhole — about 60 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep — opened in the earth late Sunday.

No one was injured but about three dozen resort goers left behind car keys, medication and other personal belongings inside their luxury condominiums after the crumbling edifices were evacuated.

"My heart sunk. I was sick to my stomach," said resort president Paul Caldwell after getting a call about 10:30 p.m. from his staff that the 15-year-old buildings full of guests were sinking into the ground.

"No doubt there would've been injuries if they hadn't gotten the building evacuated," he said during a live news conference."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...0,376846.story