Florida Sinkhole Story, Sadness for This Situation

I read about that yesterday. It is horrible, it doesn't matter if it is an earthquake/tornado/hurricane or tsunami any time life is lost it is tragic. The difference between a tornado and hurricane is that often times there is some form of warning. Earthquakes/sinkholes are unpredictable, they can't even say that 'tomorrow there is going to be a 10% chance of an earthquake'. It just happens.

The thing with the sinkhole is that it doesn't appear to be 'normal' for a sinkhole. I can't imagine being sound asleep then sinking into the earth. How tragic for his family, and how senseless.

that is such a devastating situation. how the hell do plan for or pre-empt THAT?
i wouldn't assembly line any single solitary thing that wasn't alive. nothing in this house would be worth endangering anyone further over.
i do see how the sudden violent dis-encumberance could be weirdly empowering.
but it's hard to find an upside for this shattered family.
:( khairete
S.

Unimaginable agony.
Shocked at the lack of compassion shown by some here.
So sad.

WOW, this is a horrible situation no matter how you look at it.

This happened in my general area. Keep in mind that there were SIX people living in this tiny house. I believe that they had had some sort of sinkhole survey done last year and the report indicated no activity. There was a neighbor who said that there was a sinkhole repaired there many years ago. The family had owned this tiny home for several decades for there was no idiocy that they purposely bought a sinkhole home. I am sure that they thought the sinkhole activity was done and repaired.

This is a lower income area. I am sure that the reason that these folks never moved is because they could not afford to do so. And frankly, there was just not a snowball's chance in hell of selling the house anyway once there was documented sinkhole activity. No homeowner's insurance company would have insured the new owners for that home anyway. No homeowner's insurance would mean no mortgage making the house pretty much unable to be sold.

It is really easy to criticize this family, but really put yourself in their shoes here. This is the same as looking down at the folks that live in a crappy, single wide trailer down by the river. Most people wouldn't do that if they could afford something different.

Have some compassion folks....virtually every area has some sort of natural disaster that happens there more frequently whether it be tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, forest fires, earthquakes etc... You never know when your area could be affected.

Many years ago (I was still in college at the time) an apartment in our complex burned up. My apartment and this one were both on the second floor. For over a year I had repeated, frequent, nightmares that my apartment was on fire, I could not get in the front door so I kept trying to climb up to the balcony to save the only two things I truly cared about -- my cat and my dog.

First and foremost... save the living beings. After that, all else is icing.

When my kids were young, I'd have grabbed their loveys (each had a beloved doll which they would have been more traumatized from leaving behind to "die" than they'd be at losing their home). Otherwise... Grab passport, IDs, wallet, jewlery (monetary value), car keys, winter coats (in winter) and cars.

Gamma:

It sucks. However, sink holes are the "tornadoes" Florida. AND they get hurricanes too!! Although they are warned about those...

The only thing I run back into a burning house or unsafe home for - is my family. All the other stuff? ppppshaw! My girlfriend (and neighbor) house fire from 2011 showed me that all things are replaceable...FAMILY is not.

I'm glad your friend took on such a great attitude towards her loss! I'm soooo sorry it happened!!!

This is sad and tragic no matter HOW you look at it. If I had 20 minutes warning? I'd probably make sure I had all living beings from my home, medications, and if I could be fast enough maybe the photo albums. All else can be replaced.

My husband and I were talking about this story a lot today and it is just so scary and sad.

Items I would go back to take:

*Wedding album (our photographer only saved our digital images for 5 yrs)
*My high school yearbooks (small school, my graduating class had only 70 some people, so we were a very tight-knit community.)
*Vital documents that are in an easy to grab file - Birth certificates, marriage certificates, my husband's Naturalization certificate and passport
*Photo albums from my husband and my childhoods (our kids' are all saved online in addition to on the p.c)
*Kids' loveys - they don't sleep well without them
* iPad & laptop - easy and quick to grab, and together they'd cost about $2k to replace
* Checkbooks for our personal and income property accounts
* Our life insurance policies

I could get all of these things out in less than 5 minutes

You know, reflecting on what your friend said, it really makes one pause to see just how much of our stuff are not necessities. There's nothing else that I am particularly tied to with an emotional bond.

This is very sad because it is so rare that people die in sinkholes here in Florida (I think he may be the first). I am also shocked that the home was still standing and it only collapsed under the bedroom. Most of the time they are not this bad or deep it is really strange. Also sinkholes can happen anywhere on the earth, they just happen more in areas that are not high about sea level.

Since I live here in Florida I would only make sure my family is out of the house, everything else is replaceable.

If I had 20 minutes, I would save my DD's baby journals, a few key books and pictures, and our wedding album. Most of those are already in the same spot. And my purse and the cats. Let the TV, sofa, fridge, clothes go. My mom lost a lot of stuff as a kid from a fire (what wasn't burned was damaged). I had to leave a lot of things behind when we did a cross country move. We couldn't ship what didn't fit in the truck. It is hard to leave "things" but they are largely replaceable. My DH and children are not.

Even all the things I mentioned - they are not worth a life. Life first.