HUDSON, Fla. — Dozens of depressions have formed in a Florida subdivision built over a cave system.
Pasco County officials said no homes are in danger, WTVT reported. But officials have no solutions for the 76 depressions that have appeared since August and can not rule out that others will form.
"They should have never even built over a cave system," homeowner Alexa Cisario told WTVT. "That's the main issue. And now we just have to deal with it."
The deep depressions, officials are not calling them sinkholes, have formed on homeowner property and an area near a retention pond owned by the subdivision’s homeowner’s association.
Divers discovered a cave system near the area about 20 years ago, WTSP reported.
"This is an unprecedented event. This is the first in the state of Florida that has popped up and grown like this," Andy Fossa, Pasco County emergency management director, told WTVT. "We ask (homeowners) do they have any cracking, any settling. Do they notice anything new around their house?"
Homeowners in the Lakeside Woodlands Community are without a solution. Because of the extent of the cave system, traditional methods to shore up the depressions would put other homes in the area and the Florida aquifer at risk.
"Any kind of grouting, pinning, piling that they try to do, what they try to do to fix something there it's going to cause a problem, most likely cause a problem, downwind, downhill," Fossa told WTVT.
Officials are monitoring the depressions for growth and working to find weak spots. Officials also closed a portion of a road in the subdivision and increased a fence boundary around the retention pond for safety, BayNews9 reported.
Cox Media Group
