Woman returns home after sinkhole swallows

[L Roebuck]

Woman returns home after sinkhole swallows garage and car

(Wyoming, September 16, 2005, 8:14 p.m.) A Wyoming woman is back in her home after a sinkhole swallowed her garage and car.

It happened last month in the 2000 block of Melvin SW.

The 20-foot wide hole took at least two attempts to fill. Wyoming's deputy fire chief says they now believe it is stable.

There is no definite cause to the sinkhole.

But there is concern over possible gypsum mines in the area as being a possible reason.

www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3861800&nav=0RceedRd

[L Roebuck]

Here's the 1st Article

Sinkhole swallows garage in Wyoming

(Update, Wyoming, August 5, 2005, 5:58 p.m.) A large sinkhole swallowed part of a garage with a car inside at a home in Wyoming.

It happened around 8:30 a.m. Friday at a home in the 2000 block of Melvin Street.

The woman who lives there made the discovery as she was walking out the door.

Crews on the scene told 24 Hour News 8 that the sinkhole is about 20-feet in diameter and 25-feet deep.


But what would cause this sinkhole?

"It appears to be some sort of underground subsidence, which could be caused by like a mine shaft or just an underground mine," Bill Dooley of the Wyoming Public Works Department told ...))

24 Hour News 8 has learned this is not the first sinkhole in the neighborhood. Just up the street from Friday's incident, a house was gobbled up by a sinkhole in September 1991. The city says a mine was responsible for that collapse, as gypsum mining was taking place at the turn of the century in potions of Wyoming and Grand Rapids.

Few official maps remain pinpointing their exact location.

"It could very well have been a separate mining company or even very small outfits that came into being and then went out of business in the early 1900's without any records," adds Dooley.

The city says over the years occurrences like these are rare and there is no need for public alarm.

If you live in this area and have some concerns, you can call a geo-technical engineer who has records of the old mine shafts in the area. They can come to your home, survey your property and make a recommendation.

www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?s=3687300

[Sharon Faulkner]

Here's an odd and only vaguely similar story to the topic at hand: One of the ladies in our grotto was using the drive thru tellers at a Birmingham area bank a few years ago when a sinkhole gave way and her car (with her in it no less) fell about six feet down.

She laughs about this incident now, and it is much funnier to hear her tell the tale.