A Pennsylvania family lost their swimming pool when a subsidence opened up and swallowed it into the earth.
Not a trace of their 44-foot fiberglass pool can now be seen.
The family woke up to a loud noise that they thought was thunder or a tree falling. But when they looked out the back window, what they saw was a massive hole.
The family notified the Schuylkill County Office of Emergency Management about the hole, located about 40 feet from the end of their driveway, at approximately 2 a.m. on December 16.
A total of four homes in the area lost water during the incident.
“We were notified that a water line for the Hazleton City Authority, which services that area of Park Place, has a water line impacted by the subsidence with four homes affected, and the authority is providing bottled water to those residents,” said John Blickley, director of the emergency management office.
Residents of the homes were given bottled water as Hazleton City Authority, which supplies water to the neighborhood, worked to restore service.
“It’s devastating,” said Tracy Quick, the pool’s owner, who lives in Mahanoy Township, about 100 miles north of Philadelphia.
And to make matters worse, this is not the first time the earth has opened up on her property.
Eight years ago, a 40-foot subsidence — a sort-of sinkhole — opened up in November 2016 behind her home just feet from where the current hole is.
At that time, they installed 120foot beams to prevent the house from falling into it, bolstered with 350 truckloads of cement.
According to the Pennsylvania State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the holes are linked to old mining works.
“Based on mine maps, this subsidence is mine related,” DEP’s northeast regional office stated in a news release. “The depth to old mine works is approximately 20 feet.”
Crews said the current hole is absolutely one of the worst they’ve ever seen.
As they did eight years ago, the DEP is paying for the concrete to fill in the massive hole, which is estimated to be about 70 feet in diameter and perhaps 50 feet deep. The exact depth is unknown because safety concerns prevent crews from further examination.
No injuries were reported.
