Massive Sinkhole Opens In Orange County Condo Complex

LA HABRA, CA —It felt like an earthquake, residents said of the nearly 100-foot long, 15-foot deep sinkhole that opened late Wednesday night in the city of La Habra. Large trees toppled into the open pit, as did a portion of the sidewalk, rendering at least one condo unsafe, according to the La Habra Police Department.

The sinkhole runs between two housing developments on the 900 block of West Imperial Highway and the ground was still considered highly unstable as of Thursday afternoon. Emergency responders arrived on scene to close off the area and render it safe overnight, but the question remained, who is responsible for the repair work?

The cause of the sinkhole was the collapse of an "underground flood-control channel." The greenbelt above "fell into the hole," police said. No one was injured, and voluntary evacuations were put into place. Only one home was damaged by a fallen tree, police said.

On Thursday, a cadaver dog was brought in to make sure no one was buried in the collapsed area. Arborists, believed to be brought in by the HOA, carefully topped and cut down the listing and toppled pine trees from the green belt area.

Orange County Public Works officials say they did not build the channel or own the land where the vast hole has opened up. They are "sitting on the sidelines," according to spokesperson Shannon Widor, and waiting to figure out who is going to be ultimately responsible for setting things back to rights.

According to Widor, the property owner, the city and the county will all need to work together to make that happen.

"We didn't construct the flood channel, it might not have been built to our standards, so we don't know how structurally sound it was," he told Patch. The recent rains may have contributed to the problem.

Widor told Patch, to his knowledge, he's "never seen [a sinkhole] that big on private property before."

Still, the collapsed flood channel does connect to another, owned and maintained by OC Public Works, "down the street," Widor said, and so they are keeping a watchful eye to see what happens next.

#LaHabra sinkhole update: We’re working with City of La Habra to identify ownership of underground flood channel along condo property. Not County or City channel owned. We continue assessing situation

— OC Public Works (@OCpublicworks) January" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/OCpublicwo... 24, 2019

Renee Schiavone Photo