A Baltimore street crumbled, leading to a major landslide Wednesday, which swallowed a number of parked cars, a wall, and the lights. No one was reportedly hurt out of the major landslide, CBS Local reported April 30.
It was a scene one could only see in apocalyptic-themed movies, but for the local residents of Charles Village in Baltimore, they got more than what they paid for in the disaster movie that happened in real life.
"The building shook at about 3:45 like a train derailed. We came running out here and the side of the 26th Street just collapsed into the pit where CSX trains go," an witness said on the road landslide that happened along the E. 26th Street. "The walls, the lights, the cars-everything parked on that side of the street-gone."
The witness added that as they stood back, the ground seemingly opened up and the parked cars on the side of the road slowly slid down and even the whole retaining wall gave away. The man said at least 10 cars were swallowed by the landslide including his own. "There was a giant crash and a plume of dust. One neighbor was screaming and crying. It was pretty traumatic."
Local reports say neighbors already knew something wrong was about to happen in the area an hour before the road collapsed.
"The street had dropped in some areas six to eight inches. There were large splits parallel with the rail tracks," Jeff Larry, who alarmed 911, said.
Meanwhile, car owners couldn't do anything but watch as their cars slid down the collapsed street onto the railroad tracks.
"It's just like the ground opened up and the cars kind of slid down," Nels Schumacher, one of the car owners said.
"I just stayed. I stayed and I pleaded," Regina McNamee, another car owner, said, adding that she begged rescue workers to spare her car as it teetered on the edge of the road.
A statement from CSX reads: "In Baltimore, Maryland, this afternoon an embankment collapsed onto CSX railroad tracks near 26th and North Charles Streets. Train traffic in the area has been stopped. We are working closely with authorities to assess damage, assure public safety and determine next steps and will provide updates."
Fortunately enough, no one was reportedly hurt out of the incident. Mayor Rawlings-Blake spoke at the scene and said that there were "no injuries to report" as no one was inside the cars or on the sidewalk at the time of the Baltimore landslide.
"What I do know is we've had to deal with sinkholes, large sinkholes, before. We have a great team of people who are going to put all of the resources necessary to deal with this as efficiently as possible, focus on safety," the mayor added. "And that's why the first thing we're doing is testing the structural integrity of the road that's left and the homes because we want to make sure whatever we do that we're keeping the individuals who are working on fixing this problem safe."
Rawlings-Blake also said that the weather may have played a role in the collapse.
"We've gone from a dreadful winter that has impacted our infrastructure to going into a rainy season, a prolonged rainy season that is also impacting our infrastructure, as we can see from this road collapse."
CBS Local reported that people, residing across the street from the collapse were requested not to stay in their homes Wednesday night. A building inspector has been requested to check the stability of the area.
"We have geophysical and structural engineers to place survey markers along the road to monitor the ground all night long," Ian Brennan of Baltimore City Fire Department said.
Margaret Brent Elementary School, which is also located across the street from the collapse, will be closed Thursday. School staff are requested to report to Coldstream Park School.
"Now what we're trying to do is make certain we keep everybody out of it, and it's a very methodical approach to try to shore this up. This will be a pretty long process," said Emergency Management and Public Safety Deputy Mayor Bob Maloney.
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