(http://i.imgur.com/i6A21PM.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/YP1S2Ij.jpg)
QuoteWinter Haven, Florida -- Winter Haven police say a possible sinkhole has opened up on Cypress Gardens Blvd, in the parking lot of a Publix shopping center. This is right across the street from Legoland.
Police say the hole is about 30 feet wide and 5 feet deep. The parking lot continues to buckle in areas out from the hole. The property owners have contacted geologists to come out and evaluate the hole.
No structures are threatened at this time. The main concern is that if its near Cypress Gardens Blvd, that could pose a problem to traffic and roadway.
In addition to the Publix grocery store, the shopping center houses a Kmart and a host of smaller businesses.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/2014/05/29/possible-sinkhole-opens-up-parking-lot-legoland/9714841/
(http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/2014/05/29/possible-sinkhole-opens-up-parking-lot-legoland/9714841/)
Hold the lego jokes. ;)
It happens all the time in that area. Most of Central Florida's lakes are sinkholes. Here's a few interesting images of sinkholes that opened in inopportune locations:
An old aerial of my hometown (Winter Haven). Legoland is located on Lake Eloise (just east of the North Arrow). Most of the lakes in the aerial were formed by sinkholes.
(http://maps.unomaha.edu/maher/GEOL1010/lecture12/sinkholeLake.jpg)
The Winter Park Sinkhole, just north of Orlando in 1981:
(http://www.sinkholes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/10/WinterParkSinkhole1987.jpg)
A sinkhole swallowed a house in Frostproof back in 2010:
(http://media2.abcactionnews.com//photo/migration/2010/04/10/9EE10BA6DA4A3D469EF4F8C4DF556762_20100410012100_640_480.JPG)
A large sinkhole opened in an IMC-Agrico phosphate mine's gypsum stack near Mulberry in 1994, sending an estimated 4 million cubic feet of phosphogypsum and contaminated water into the aquifer:
(http://www.fluoridealert.org/wp-content/uploads/sinkhole.jpg)
A sinkhole opened under Scott Lake in Lakeland, swallowing most of the lake back in 2006:
(http://citynoise.org/upload/13109.jpg)
(http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/fe5132d34d.jpg)
Then, don't forget about the Jeffrey Bush tragedy from last year in Seffner (just east of Tampa).
(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1023217/thumbs/o-SNKHOLE_SWALLOWS_MAN_4-570.jpg?1)
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/03/jeffrey-bush-dead-inside-killer-florida-sinkhole-swallowed-man-video_n_3006323.html
A sinkhole opened under his bed in the middle of the night. He was never found. Here's a picture showing the hole's location after the house was demolished.
Keep building and sucking water out of the aquifer and we'll keep getting random sinkholes....
(http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6932/sinkholeposter.gif)
(http://www.sinkholeattorneynaples.com/florida-sinkhole-map.jpg)