HOLIDAY, Fla., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Six homes in a central Florida community were evacuated after an apparent sinkhole swallowed a Hyundai.
The hole developed in a driveway in the Holiday Travel Park community in Pasco County near Tampa shortly after a woman parked her car there Monday morning. She was not hurt.
"She got out of the car, took a couple of steps and the car started sinking," said Caroline Bowser, a witness who was visiting her brother in the neighborhood.
Doug Tobin, a spokesman for he county, said the hole grew quickly from 4-foot square to 10-foot square, engulfing the Hyundai Accent. It continued to grow into the afternoon, although more slowly.
Sinkholes are especially common in Florida, where marine limestone is the underlying rock. The hole in Holiday cannot be declared a sinkhole until it has been examined by geologists.
Anna Maria Boi Jones, who lost her car, and Larry Pickering, property manager at Holiday Travel Park, blamed construction work at a nearby sewage plant for the hole.
"They've been drawing water for the last couple of weeks out of here and we believe that maybe they got into one of the aquifers," Pickering said.
Pickering said the hole continued to grow Monday night, although it was getting deeper rather than wider.
