Tarpon Springs Sinkhole: Motorists Urged To Steer Clear

TARPON SPRINGS, FL — As Pinellas County and the city of Tarpon Springs continue to make repairs in the area where a sinkhole opened on Wednesday, motorists are being asked to avoid East Lake Road southbound. Pinellas County is asking drivers to use U.S. 19 as an alternate route in the area around the Tarpon Shores Mobile Home Park.

A total of six mobile homes were evacuated Wednesday morning after the possible sinkhole opened near the Tarpon Shores Mobile Home Park on Mango Street, close to U.S. 19. The depression measured 60 feet across and was 35 feet in deep as of Wednesday morning, the city noted in an email to media. The sinkhole damaged a Pinellas County sewer line and a city sewer line and water line.

As of Wednesday evening, Pinellas County reported crews were still working to repair a 30-inch sewer force main. The status of the repairs remains unknown.

Sinkholes are a common occurrence in Florida, the state's Department of Environmental Protection reports. That agency defines them as "a landform created by subsidence of soil, sediment, or rock as underlying strata are dissolved by groundwater. A sinkhole forms by collapse into subterranean voids created by dissolution of limestone or dolostone or by subsidence as these strata are dissolved."

To help Floridians better understand these formations, DEP has created a sinkhole information page on its website. That page delves into such topics as sinkhole detection, information about Florida geology and even addresses the question "What's up with all the sinkholes?"

The Tampa Bay area has witnessed a number of sinkhole openings in the past year. Last August, the Seffner sinkhole that swallowed a man while he was in bed back in 2013 reopened.

Photo courtesy of the City of Tarpon Springs

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