Crews were back at the scene of a Pasco County sinkhole Thursday, trying to determine what caused the huge hole to swallow the back of a home.
According to Bay News 9's partner newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, 79-year-old homeowner Susan Minutillo went to run an errand Wednesday afternoon while a survey crew was checking her Hudson home for sinkholes.
When she returned 45 minutes later, the back of her home was collapsed in a sinkhole 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep. A bright orange sticker on the garage now reads "condemned."
Minutillo said she doesn't know what she will do now. She was too upset to talk on camera Thursday.
Meanwhile, crews are using ground penetrating radar to try to figure out what happened underneath the home in the 14000 block of Shoal Drive.
That radar can determine if the sinkhole is done settling or if the hole is bigger and needs to be filled.
Sinkhole worries neighbors
Neighbors also are concerned about the possibility of the hole growing larger, prompting an evacuation of the closest home.
Neighbor Dave Taylor and his wife slept across the street Wednesday night for fear they would be next.
"I'm right next door to it. It's only 10 feet away," he said. "All my belongings are in there. All my history is in there."
Around the block, Susan and Michael Rooney have a huge crack cutting through their own backyard. After checking out the damage, they said they're even more on edge.
"Every night we listen to little things or creeks and we think oooh! Is it happening?" Susan Rooney said.
Even worse, they dropped their sinkhole coverage after it went up $400 a month.
"And then it was getting higher,” said Michael Rooney. “And you can't sell anything in the area because of sinkhole coverages."
"So we have nothing,” Susan said. “If our house goes, we're done.
Florida homes vulnerable to sinkholes
Pasco County Emergency Management spokesperson Annette Doying said Florida homes are especially vulnerable to sinkholes because of drought-like conditions in recent years, which has caused the water level in the aquifer to drop, creating voids.
"The soil layer that's laying on top, especially following restorative rains like the last few weeks, [now] you get the weight of that now-wet soil sitting on top of a void," Doying said.
Because of rain on Wednesday, field crews could not assess the situation to determine if it is one hole or a series of interconnected sinkholes.
Doying said the sinkhole is probably not the biggest crews have seen in the area in the past. In 1998, drought conditions followed by heavy El Nino rains caused significant numbers of large sinkholes to the area.
Bay News 9 was told it will be up to the homeowner to work with her insurance company and decide whether to demolish the entire building or fix the sink hole and make all the repairs to even move back in. In the meantime, Emergency Management will be monitoring the entire site to make sure neighbors aren't in harm’s way.