Sinkhole Swallows Resort near Disney World (Video)
A sinkhole, one hundred feet in diameter, had swallowed parts of a resort building at Summer Bay Resort in Florida, just within distance from Disney World.
According to a report from the local newspaper Orlando Sentinel, no one was harmed in the incident, but it caused panic among the 4000 guests staying at the resort. There were guests who lost valuable belongings in the rumble. Summer Bay Resort President Paul Caldwell said that the resort's staff were all prompt to have the guests evacuated to safe place.
"I talked to a lady this morning whose keys, medicine, money and Disney tickets were all in building 104, and she in all likelihood will never see it again. We are authorizing cash advances as needed, some have to buy clothes. We are going to do whatever we can to do whatever is right. We are in the hospitality business and we want to save our guests' vacation."
Mr Caldwell also said that the U.S. Geological Survey was already in the process of identifying whether the sinkhole is growing and if it remains a threat to the immediate vicinity.
"After the geologists' initial survey here, they've indicated it is what they describe as a classic Florida sinkhole about 100 feet in diameter and on a preliminary basis, they do not have a concern that it is growing or will grow," Mr Caldwell told the Orlando Sentinel.
Guests who witnessed the sinkhole swallowing the parts of the building shared their shock about what they saw.
"We checked in at 5:30 and by 11:30 all our belongings were gone, except for our bathing suits and our lives, which we're thankful for. It sounded like a fight - like multiple people with aluminum baseball bats who were swinging them against the windows, and then one window broke.All of us were like deer in headlights.You don't see a building every day twisting around like it was in a vortex and coming down around you, and seeing the room you would have slept in with three toddlers sink 50 feet into the ground and then two floors collapsing on top of them," shared Maggie Ghamry who was staying at the Summer Bay resort building that was partly eaten by the sinkhole.
Richard Shanley, the security on duty while the incident happened, said that instinct guided him to act accordingly.
"It was scary. You don't know what to do. But you do what you can do to get people out. I didn't know what was happening, instinct took over. I had to run literally from end to end of the building to get people out. While you are running by, pieces of the building are falling down behind you. So you just do what you can and get out," Mr Shanley said.
He also said that some of the guests were in disbelief as kids cry for their parents.
"Some of them were like 'are you serious.' Some of them were screaming and hollering. I was trying to calm them down as best as I could. Kids were crying. They were saying, 'We don't want to get trapped here. Mommy, we're on vacation. We're here to have fun. This is not what we expected. We don't want to get trapped here."
Nael Said and his family from Milwaukee were staying at the building near the collapsed building when the sinkhole happened. He said that it sounded terrifying from where they were.
"First it was cracking. Just cracking. And then boom, it went down. They fear staying there tonight. It was terrifying. We didn't know what was going to happen. We don't know how big sinkholes are or anything about them."