67-year-old man plunges into sinkhole outside his Oregon home, rescuers say
A 67-year-old man fell into a sinkhole near his Oregon home on Tuesday, officials said.
The Eugene man sank 16 feet below the surface and was trapped for around 30 minutes before rescue crews retrieved him, according to Eugene Springfield Fire.
He had been calling for help when someone else at his home heard his cries, officials said.
Crews found the man partially submerged in water.
“Air flow was not an issue,” the fire department’s program coordinator Emily R. Smith told McClatchy News.
The sinkhole was near the foundation of his home in western Eugene, near Fern Ridge Lake, officials said. The diameter of the hole was around 3 feet.
Sinkholes are common in places where the rock below the surface dissolves quickly from groundwater.
As the rock slowly dissolves, the space below the surface develops caverns. Once that space is large enough, the land above it collapses and creates a sinkhole.
But sinkholes aren’t common in Oregon or the Willamette Valley, officials said, and they don’t know how it was formed.
The man also didn’t know it existed before sinking into it.
States most at risk for damaging sinkholes include Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 10:10 AM with the headline "67-year-old man plunges into sinkhole outside his Oregon home, rescuers say."
