Message #39130

[Mark]

Sinkhole damages Disney World-area resort

Dozens of guests at a Florida resort near Walt Disney World were evacuated late Sunday when at least two buildings partially collapsed after a sinkhole opened on the property's grounds, guests and resort employees said.
 
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
 
Guests "heard the building popping, and they all got out," said a Summer Bay Resort security worker. He said the buildings at least partially collapsed into a sinkholes.

 Dora Dembley, an employee at the Clermont, Fla., resort near Orlando, said Lake County fire officials responded after at least two buildings on the 64-acre property were damaged.

"Everybody was cleared out of the buildings, so nobody got hurt," said Dembley, who confirmed that multiple buildings were damaged, including one whose front was sheared off and appeared to sink into the ground.
 
Guests had only 10 to 15 minutes to leave, according to the Orlando Sentinel, with around three dozen resort-goers leaving behind car keys, medication and other personal belongings inside their luxury condominiums.
 
"My heart sunk. I was sick to my stomach," said resort president Paul Caldwell after getting a call about 10:30 p.m. from his staff that the 15-year-old buildings full of guests were sinking into the ground.
 
"No doubt there would've been injuries if they hadn't gotten the building evacuated," he said during a live news conference.
 
One witness told WFTV, a local television station, that "windows were 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 ..." guest Maggie Ghamry told the station.
 
She said another couple with an infant baby had to smash through a room window after the door frame collapsed.
 
"It was the most ... surreal experience I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams."
 
Dembley said several dozen evacuated guests were being housed in other buildings on the property, about six miles from Walt Disney World.
 
A spokesman for the Lake County Fire Department did not immediately return a call for comment.
 
Authorities are awaiting engineers to confirm whether the gaping hole in the earth is in fact a sinkhole.

video: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-florida-resort-sinkhole-20130812,0,4393338.story