The search for the Florida man swallowed up by a sinkhole has been called off. Jeff Bush, 37, perished when a sinkhole took his entire bedroom into the bowels of the earth as he was sleeping. Authorities say at this time it is “impossible” to retrieve the body of Bush, as the area is too unstable, according to “Fox and Friends Weekend” on Sunday morning, March 3, 2013.
The 20 to 30 foot wide sinkhole is completely contained within the walls of the Florida home. The hole has gotten much deeper since Thursday night when Jeff disappeared. The Bush family rushed to the bedroom after they heard Jeff screaming when the sinkhole formed and dragged him and his bedroom down into the ground, according to Yahoo News on Sunday.
The home will be demolished today by putting the large equipment used to do this on stable ground with the equipment operators reaching the long arms of the machines into the house. So the family can retrieve some of their personal belongings, parts of the house will be pulled away from the unstable ground. This will allow the family to eventually pick through the ruble for any personal items they can salvage.
Yesterday cameras showed the people testing the ground around the area hooked up to harnesses with long cables as a precaution. If the sinkhole did open up causing the workmen to fall into it, the cables would be their life saving line.
Thursday night the Bush family heard what they thought was a car crash and then they heard screams coming from Jeff Bush, who was in his bedroom in bed for the night. When his brother, Jeremy Bush went to his bedroom he saw the gaping sinkhole that swallowed up the bed and his brother. His attempts to dig his brother out of the hole were to no avail. When the first responders arrived, they had to rescue Jeremy from the sinkhole.
Houses adjacent to the Bush home have been evacuated as a precaution due to worries that the sinkhole will widen and incorporate more area. As things inside the Bush house continue to fall into the sinkhole, they are getting buried as this hole pulls the objects down into the ground.
Sandy Nettles, owner of a geology consulting company in the Tampa area, told the media that “There’s hardly a place in Florida that’s immune to sinkholes.” This means that while the sinkhole that opened up under the Bush home is a rare occurrence, this feasibly could happen anywhere in the state of Florida. Nettles said “There’s no way of ever predicting where a sinkhole is going to occur.”
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