Central Florida has been dubbed ‘Sinkhole Alley’ after it became famous for the dangerous phenomenon in which the ground collapses without warning, putting nearby homes and businesses at huge risk.
Many state residents are still haunted by a major incident that occurred at a car dealership in Lake Rose in 1981, and some vehicles still lie beneath the surface today.
Dr. Manoj Chopra, an expert on sinkholes and erosion at the University of Central Florida, spoke with Click on Orlando This week about the prevalence of sinkholes across the state and why they occur.
Chopra says ‘Sinkhole Alley’ spans a huge swath of land in Florida and ‘stretches from Hillsborough County, and near Tampa, all the way to Daytona, and through our Maitland and Winter Park areas.’
Of the nearly 27,000 reported sinkholes in Florida, 20,145 of the dangerous voids are located in the three Sinkhole Alley counties: Pasco, Hernando and Hillsborough.
Central Florida has been nicknamed ‘Sinkhole Alley’ after becoming famous for the dangerous phenomenon where the ground suddenly collapses. Pictured: A car is swept into a sinkhole in Florida
Dr. Manoj Chopra, a sinkhole and erosion expert at the University of Central Florida, explained the prevalence of sinkholes throughout Central Florida.
Aerial footage from 1981 shows a massive sinkhole in Winter Park, Florida, that caused a car dealership to collapse, resulting in vehicles remaining submerged to this day.
Chopra highlighted the devastation left by the The infamous 1981 sinkhole in Winter Park, near Orlando, which grew to 400 feet in diameter, swallowing five cars, two businesses, a three-bedroom home, nearby streets and the deep end of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Many sinkholes eventually become picturesque lakes, and Chopra pointed out the easy way to find one from above.
“If you fly over Central Florida, if you see those very round lakes, those are probably sinkholes, because a sinkhole is typically a funnel that comes up to the surface and sinks,” Chopra said.
Although they may look beautiful from above, they are actually a major threat to the safety of locals.
Perhaps most puzzling is that some sinkholes seem to occur randomly.
While sinkholes that develop beneath sandy soil often show signs of distress in their shallow depressions before they collapse, those that begin to crumble beneath layers of clay, such as the fatal incident in Seffner, can collapse suddenly and without warning.
In 2013, Jeff Bush, 37, of Seffner, was sleeping in bed when he was unexpectedly swallowed by a sinkhole. Emergency services were unable to recover his body after it sank into the void.
Chopra said the clay, which acts as a barrier, actually hides the erosion taking place beneath the surface until it implodes, taking everything above it with it.
In 2018, a dozen sinkholes opened in a Florida town, forcing the evacuation of eight homes and raising fears that other residents might have to leave as well.
The holes began appearing around a retention pond in Ocala’s Wynchase neighborhood, and continued to appear for two weeks as locals were puzzled and terrified about the underlying cause.
This photo shows a sinkhole that fatally swallowed a man sleeping in his own home in 2013. The sinkhole has since reopened for a third time, this time behind a wire fence and without causing damage to people or property.
A home is destroyed after the backyard behind the house collapsed into a sinkhole, taking its patio and boat with it in November 2013 in Dunedin, Florida.
In 2018, a dozen sinkholes opened in a Florida town, forcing the evacuation of eight homes and prompting fears among other residents that they would be next to go.
Demolition experts look on as the house, which was destroyed on March 3, 2013, after a sinkhole opened beneath it late in the afternoon and swallowed Bush, 37, in Seffner.
“They keep coming,” local resident Maren Pinder told WFTV at the time. “Are we safe? We don’t know. It’s very scary. We just have a bag ready in case they tell us to evacuate.”
Some sinkholes can remain dormant for decades, before they inevitably swell and cause further damage.
In 2023, the deadly Seffner sinkhole, which previously claimed the life and home of a Florida man while he slept, returned for a third time.
Since Bush’s death, the sinkhole has been surrounded by a chain-link fence in an effort to protect residents of the Tampa suburb from further harm, an ominous warning of the hole’s destructive power.
In a 2015 effort, officials filled the hole with a mixture of gravel and water after it was opened a second time.
However, the sinkhole grew to be 19 feet wide at its largest point, and state records show that Florida sinkholes can grow as much as 400 feet (121 meters), swallowing cars, businesses and, in one 2006 case, draining nearby Scott Lake.
A sinkhole in Emerald Springs called Mystery Sink, now infamous for claiming two lives, was permanently closed to the public with a large barbed fence now surrounding the area.
Pictured: The deadly mysterious sinkhole where two people lost their lives in a matter of days
Central Florida has been dubbed ‘Sinkhole Alley’ after becoming famous for the dangerous phenomenon in which the ground suddenly collapses.
In 1970, a 16-year-old boy, Fred Schmidt of Orlando, went diving with local instructor Hal Watts in the lake known for its deep-sea diving lessons.
The pair ventured into Mystery Sink in search of a lost safety vest, but tragedy struck when Watts realized the teen was no longer by his side.
Despite seeing the boy for a brief moment below him, Watts was unable to locate him before passing out.
Three days into the search for the boy’s body, tragedy struck again when diver Bud Sims, who was assisting in the operation, became entangled in the search lines and panicked, losing his mouthpiece as he tried to surface.
Tragically, Sims collided with the hull of a television boat and died before he could be rescued.
Despite efforts to recover the bodies, the remains of the teenager and Sims were never found.
When it comes to prevention, Chopra urges homeowners to understand the geological history of their neighborhood.
He also recommended consulting the Florida Geological Survey’s sinkhole map to assess the risk level for a particular location.
But at some point, avoiding Florida’s nearly 30,000 sinkholes can come down to luck.
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