WILKES-BARRE -- Rhonda Martini of Wilkes-Barre is trying to figure out how gardening in her backyard led to her fighting for her life. On Sunday afternoon, she was using a pitchfork to plant flowers when a big hole suddenly opened up under her feet.
“Next thing I know, me and the pitchfork fell right into the hole. I was hanging on by armpits only,” she said.
She yelled for her daughter to come help her. But she feared she wasn't going to make it.
“I was dangling and couldn't feel the bottom, and I just thought the rest of it was going to cave in,” she said.
The Department of Environmental Protection showed up at a home in Wilkes-Barre Tuesday to check out the hole. Inspectors from the state are trying to determine what caused the crater and what should be done to stabilize the area.
“If my daughter had not grabbed on by her elbows, she would have went down. There was mine water, and God only knows where she have wound up,” said her mom Rose Smith.
Officials from the state DEP say this part of Wilkes-Barre has a history of mine subsidence. Now Martini wants them to fill the hole.
“I feel like I was Alice in Wonderland and I was going to look for the rabbit!” she said.
