Port Royal, SC -
As the nation and
professional workers on site watched helplessly, a sinkhole swallowed a Florida
man and part of his home late last week.
A scary scene that makes people
wonder--could it happen here?
South Carolina Department of
Natural Resources Geologist Will Doar tests areas along the Palmetto State
coastline, and showed a sinkhole in Port Royal that's been deflating for
hundreds of years.
"And the whole area
is just slowly dropping and the swamp is trying to fill it up," Doar said. "And
if you look around here you'll probably find where people have put stuff over
the centuries trying to fill it in, but it kind of stays. Because the amount of dropping is balanced by
the amount of swamp filling it back up."
In simple terms, Doar says
we don't have reason to fear a sight like the one in Florida where the floor--
or "roof" of the hole-- drops out suddenly.
There are two types of
sinkholes, he says-- catastrophic ones that rapidly cave, and one that sink so
slowly there's no danger.
"The limestone we
have in this area don't have that roof, don't have that hard thing on top, so
if the limestone does dissolve, everything on top just slowly falls in. I use
the analogy of deflating an air mattress. It just all sort of sinks at the same
time instead of suddenly falling in," Doar said.
