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Sinkholes
Topic Started: Feb 21 2014, 08:30 PM (2,522 Views)
yass
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yass
20-02-2014
No two stories are just alike.


CBS/APFebruary 19, 2014, 1:26 PM

Lost dog search leads to sinkhole rescue for pooch, owner


Posted Image

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A Portland fire official says a woman and her dog have been rescued unharmed after falling into a 20-foot-deep sinkhole that opened up in her backyard.

Portland Fire & Rescue Lt. Rich Chatman says the woman in her 30s was trying to find her small poodle mix Tuesday night in her dark Portland backyard when she fell into a sinkhole about 3.5 feet in diameter.

A neighbor called 911 around 7:25 p.m. after she walked by and heard the woman calling for help, CBS Portland affiliate KOIN-TV reports.

Fire crews used rope and ground ladders to rescue them. Chatman says fire officials at the scene were amazed that both escaped unhurt.

The spokesman says a neighbor who shares a property line said both homeowners had been required to do some recent work on their sewage system.

Crews were covering up the hole temporarily late Tuesday.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sinkhole-makes-trouble-for-dog-owner-in-portland-oregon/


Sinkhole swallows Portland woman and her dog

A Portland, Oregon, woman and her dog fell into a 20-foot-deep sinkhole last night.

Officials say the woman, who is in her 30s, fell while searching for her dog in the dark, CNN reports. The small poodle mix apparently fell into the hole earlier.

A passerby heard the woman screaming for help and called 911.

Fire crews used rope and ground ladders to rescue both of them. Fire officials at the scene were reportedly amazed that both escaped unhurt.

It is not clear how the sinkhole formed.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=9437392


Oregon woman and her dog rescued from backyard sinkhole

A Portland, Ore., woman and her dog were rescued from a 20-foot-deep sinkhole in her backyard after a neighbor heard her screams for help.

Portland Fire & Rescue Lt. Rich Chatman said that the woman, in her 30s, was looking for her poodle mix dog on Tuesday evening and didn’t see the 3½-foot hole that had opened in her yard, The Associated Press reported.

Apparently, the dog hadn’t, either. But a neighbor — who said the woman had been required to do sewage work recently — heard her shouts and called 911. The rescue crew dropped a ladder and helped both the woman and her dog to safety unharmed, AP said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/19/oregon-woman-dog-rescued-backyard-sinkhole/


Video: 20-foot sinkhole opens up in SE Portland

A Southeast Portland woman fell into a 20-foot sinkhole in her backyard Tuesday night while looking for her dog. At the bottom of the sinkhole was her black poodle mix, which had fallen down the hole earlier in the evening.

After rescuing the woman and her dog, Portland Fire and Rescue captured video of the 3-foot-wide sinkhole. It was not immediately clear how the sinkhole formed, though it is possible it had been a former well or pit, said Lt. Rich Chatman, a Portland Fire and Rescue spokesman.

Check out photos of the sinkhole and stay tuned for more coverage of the mystery hole in the ground.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/02/video_sinkhole_opens_up_in_se.html




Sinkholes have swallowed cars, animals and people in Oregon (photos)
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2014/02/sinkholes-portland-oregon-history.html


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yass
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yass
20-02-2014
I found articles that were listed separate from the group I'd found the above in (113 grouped at the time). These explain that it was likely an old ceptic tank that was the culprit. They have more details about the story.


Old septic system likely caused Portland sinkhole

The sinkhole opened up around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the woman’s home at SE 38th and Clinton. The 33-year-old woman was looking for her poodle when she fell in.

Neighbor Jason Masarik had just returned home from work and was standing on his porch when he heard something crying out.

“I almost went back inside, but it was so repetitive that I decided to investigate,” he told KOIN 6 News. “The closer I got the more it sounded like someone crying for help.”

He found the woman and called 911: “Hello, I have an emergency. My neighbor’s stuck down in a hole in her backyard, like it’s a sinkhole!”

City investigators said an abandoned cesspool opened up in the backyard. This septic system is typically found east of the Willamette and was used at the beginning of the 20th century.

Property owners are required to decommission or backfill cesspools with sand or gravel, but in many cases — like this one — the homeowners don’t know they have one.

“We may or may not have a record of a cesspool existing,” said Ross Caron with the Portland Bureau of Development Services. “A lot of time these cesspools were done in the early 20th century so the record keeping may not have captured that.”

Historic records on sewage systems can be found on microfiche at the Bureau of Development in downtown Portland. They are also available on PortlandMaps.com by typing in an address for property information.

Most homeowners insurance doesn’t cover sinkholes.

http://koin.com/2014/02/19/old-septic-system-caused-portland-sinkhole/


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yass
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20-02-2014
Century-old cesspool at the bottom of collapsed Southeast Portland sinkhole

A century-old cesspool collapsed Tuesday night in Southeast Portland, creating a sinkhole that trapped, for a time, an Oregon Health and Science University faculty member and her 18-week-old Newfoundland puppy.

Kelly Ryan was walking her dog in the backyard of her 1907 Craftsman in the 2700 block of Southeast 38th Avenue when the puppy disappeared into the ground, she said. As Ryan moved closer, she tumbled into a hole and found herself waist-deep in muck at the bottom. She was stuck for about 45 minutes.

Crews from the Portland Fire Bureau and the city's Bureau of Development Services returned Wednesday to examine the pit along the side of Ryan's property. It measured 3-feet wide and 15- to 20-feet deep, bricked at the base.

The cesspool likely dates to the second term of President Theodore Roosevelt, said Ross Caron, a bureau spokesman.

Soon after the rescue, Ryan's next-door neighbor, Teresa Hockman Holgate, posted on Facebook saying she'd had recent sewer work done. "The city made us separate our party sewer line," she wrote. "Seems all the snow//water has found its way to an old cistern and our yards are are sloughing away to nowhere."

Pieces of a concrete retaining wall fell in as crews pulled Ryan out, Holgate added in a Facebook comment.

How and why the sinkhole appeared are questions for the homeowner to answer, said Caron.

"Our bureau doesn't do any analysis of cause," he said. "It's not uncommon for there to be a cesspool that's not decommissioned. But a cesspool sinkhole is rare."

The agency posted a helpful fact sheet with guidelines for homeowners to locate and fill in abandoned septic systems on their property.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the recent sewage line work may have played a role in the cesspool collapse.

A sewer connecting permit on Portland Maps, the city's property database, shows work at Ryan's and Holgate's homes was licensed on Jan. 24 and cleared inspection on Feb. 6.

An especially wet winter may also have contributed to the sinkhole. Between Jan. 24 and Tuesday night, meteorologists measured more than 5.23 inches of precipitation in Portland.

This isn't the first time a long-forgotten hole caused consternation in the neighborhood. Contractors found a 20-foot-deep well a block from Ryan's house about 15 years ago in Janet Cahn's driveway.

"It was pretty scary," she said. "What if there had been a car right there or someone had been parking the car?"

Cahn said the hole was lined with bricks and looked like an old cistern. The couple was planning to repave their driveway anyway, so they broke up the concrete, filled the hole, and paved over it.

Decommissioned cesspools get a similar treatment, Caron said, after homeowners get a permit to fill them with gravel and sand.

Story, 9 pictures:
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/02/century-old_cesspool_at_the_bo.html


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yass
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20-02-2014
Seffner fatal sinkhole site’s fate still unclear

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Jeffrey Bush died when a sinkhole developed under his
home. His body could not be recovered from the hole.


TAMPA — Chuck Holloway didn’t sleep well for a week after a sinkhole swallowed his neighbor Jeffrey Bush in Seffner last year.

“And neither did anyone else around here,” he said from his front patio Wednesday afternoon.

Next week will be the one-year anniversary of the fatal sinkhole, which drew national and international attention, and Hillsborough County is moving forward with a plan for the property on which the gaping hole opened.

Over the past year, the county has destroyed the remains of the house under which the sinkhole formed, along with the two houses on either side. Now, the question is what to do with the three empty lots.

The county is taking suggestions, though in any scenario public access to the site of the filled-in sinkhole will be prohibited on the advice of a geo-engineer.

The lots sit empty, an orange construction net around the spot of the sinkhole. A chain link fence stretches along the perimeter of the property. Small memorials, including six-inch glass angels, a string of hearts and an engraved granite tombstone, line the fence along the sidewalk.

The homeowners have agreed to relinquish to the county any claims to the property and the paperwork is being finalized. The county has plans to erect a memorial plaque of some kind at the site, though the design is undetermined.

The land will belong to the county’s parks and recreation department, which will make it a conservation area. The county plans to plant pines, oaks, palms and other indigenous flora.

Jack Carlisle, director of parks and recreation, said the county has been in touch with the Bush family and neighboring homeowners and announced what the preliminary plans were for the three lots at a public meeting on Feb. 12.

Carlisle’s report was delivered to the Hillsborough County Commission on Wednesday. He said the report was prepared to let the commission know what was going on at the one-year anniversary of the sinkhole, “to provide information on things we are doing, once we own the property.”

Insurance claims have paid the homeowners for damages caused by the sinkhole and condemnations by the county, he said.

Carlisle said he wanted to accomplish three objectives at the site: ...

Read more at http://tbo.com/news/a-year-later-what-to-do-with-site-of-fatal-seffner-sinkhole-20140219/


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yass
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yass
20-02-2014
OR, maybe it was not a septic or cesspool, maybe it was a water well (do they really know?) People who don't read multiple published articles of one event will have the version they read in mind without knowing there are/were so many versions (I've only opened and read the few I've posted and each one has varied to an extent on details.)

A woman had tumbled down what appeared to be an old water well in the yard of her Richmond neighborhood home while looking for her dog shortly after 7:20 p.m.

Read more here.

The above article deals more with logistics of removing her from the well without causing the walls to collapse.

One interesting comment from one of the posts above, from the next door neighbor (Teresa Hockman Holgate) who posted to Facebook:

     "...and our yards are are sloughing away to nowhere."

I'm a bit curious about where the dirt sloughed away to.


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