A Chicago sinkhole is threatening a South Side neighborhood after opening up on Sunday.
The massive sinkhole has already swallowed up part of the street at 124th Street and Wentworth. The sinkhole is the result of a water main break. It has expanded since opening up on Sunday. The water department had to turn off the water for a two block range so that crews could work to repair it, ABC reports.
Before the water was turned off, a handful of basement flooded with as much as two feet of water in addition to the sinkhole opening up, as a result of the water main break.
Removal crews also had to work to get rid of a tree that was stuck inside the 14-foot sinkhole. The crews have to make the hole larger so that they can access the water main.
The hole, which now measures 20 by 80 feet, seems to have started when a pipe servicing a house had a small leak and eventually eroded over time and washed out the drain and support structure from under the road. It had enough and gave way on Sunday night.
"Depending on what's underneath it, we're hoping by the end of the week we should have the street repaired," Dep. Comm. Bill Bresnahan, Chicago Water Department told ABC. "We will have water on to these people before we leave here, hopefully by the end of the day."
This isn't the only sinkhole in Chicago's South Side recently. In April, another large sinkhole swallowed three cars and injured one person. That sinkhole was also due to a broken water main and heavy rains that fell in the area.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
