Giant sinkhole swallowed up man's bedroom as he vanished without a trace
Joe Harker
Featured Image Credit: ABC Action News
10 years ago, the ground opened up and swallowed a man who has since never been seen again.
On 28 February, 2013, a 37-year-old man was asleep in his home in Seffner, Florida, when a giant sinkhole opened up right underneath his bedroom.
Jeffrey Bush was that man and his brother, Jeremy, said he heard a loud crash and rushed to investigate, discovering a crater where his brother's room had once been.
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Hoping to save his brother he jumped into the hole while the ground continued to give way beneath his feet, but someone pulled Jeremy out to save him from being swallowed up by the earth too.
Jeremy said he was sure he could hear his brother shouting his name and calling out for help but couldn't get down to him.
"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care," he said of that night where he attempted to save his brother from the sinkhole.
"He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him. I wanted to save my brother. But I just couldn't do nothing."
When emergency services arrived on the scene, they lowered a microphone into the suddenly appeared sinkhole in the hopes of hearing Jeffrey, but their equipment was dragged down by another sudden collapse and further efforts to rescue him were eventually deemed too dangerous.
The house was eventually fenced off for safety and in the end it was demolished with the pit filled in with gravel.
With rescue efforts unable to locate him or recover his body from the sinkhole, Jeffrey Bush is presumed to have died.
In 2015, the sinkhole reopened and according to experts, two sinkholes opening up in the same spot is a very rare occurrence.
Florida is a part of the world with a particular vulnerability to sinkholes because there are lots of underground caverns which are made up of limestone.
Water can dissolve limestone which creates holes beneath the ground that soil collapses into and forms a sinkhole.
Climate change is only making the problem worse, as more intense cycles of drought and hard rainfall can increase the chances of new sinkholes.
It's a naturally occurring phenomenon in the state and licensed insurance companies in Florida are required to offer sinkhole coverage to their customers because there's such a present danger of it happening.