Huge sinkhole swallows resort villa

A sixty-foot-wide sinkhole caused the partial collapse of a three-story villa at a US resort near Disney World early Monday, sending guests scrambling for safety.
    
No one was injured but 36 guests were evacuated from the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, Florida after the building began to collapse and another villa slowly sank.
    
"About 30 percent of the three-story structure collapsed around 3:00 a.m," said Kelly LaFollette, a spokeswoman for Lake County, Florida.
    
"But the Fire Department arrived there before midnight when we received the first call from the resort and started the evacuation," she said.
    
LaFollette said the sinkhole, which was 60 feet wide and 15 feet deep, sent shudders through the resort.
    
Guests told WFTV they heard splintering sounds and windows breaking as they fled for their lives.
 
Witness Maggie Ghamry said one man had to smash through a window to get his wife and infant child to safety because the door frame to their unit collapsed.
    
"There were windows breaking everywhere. One woman was sitting in the tub and the tub levitated and that's when she just grabbed a pair of shorts and came out with nothing," she said.
    
"It was the most surreal experience I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams."
    
The resort, located near Disney World on the outskirts of Orlando, Florida, was closed after the incident, LaFollette said.
    
AFP was unable to reach resort managers, but local media said its head had assured local authorities that geological tests had been conducted on the site before the resort was built 15 years ago.
    
It is the second major sinkhole incident in Florida this year. In March, a young man was swallowed up by a hole that opened under his house in Tampa, on the Gulf coast west of Orlando.

Other buildings being tested

An official at a resort near Orlando, Fla., where a 100-foot sinkhole has swallowed part of a villa has said he's awaiting the results of inspections to determine if there's been damage to two other buildings there.

Summer Bay Resort President Paul Caldwell says that before Sunday night, there had been no signs a sinkhole was developing. He says the resort underwent geological testing when it was built about 15 years ago, showing the ground to be stable.

By early Monday, nearly a third of the structure at the resort had collapsed. All 105 guests staying in the villa were evacuated, as were those in the neighboring buildings. No injuries were reported. The villa, with 24 three-story units, was reported as a total loss.

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