GLEN LYON, Pa. — For more than a dozen people forced from their homes in Luzerne County, returning isn't an option.
Officials in Glen Lyon say a sinkhole opened right outside of an apartment complex on Rock Street on Sunday.
It's estimated to be 100 feet deep, and authorities think this is part of a mine subsidence about 750 feet under the sinkhole.
As for those living near the site, five homes are condemned, leaving about 20 people scrambling for housing.
"This area has a history of mining. The Glen Lyon coal company, as a matter of fact, the hole itself is at the base of where the old breaker used to stand. So, we're just encouraging people to stay away from it, sightseers or anything, just don't go near it because the ground could give way at any time," said Colleen Connolly, Pa. Department of Environmental Protection.
Paul Distler had a good view of the subsidence. It's right out his back door at the Rock Street Apartments.
Distler told Newswatch 16 he slept through it.
“I heard a fireman opening up my bedroom door with a flashlight, letting me know that they are the fire department and I gotta get out.”
Distler said he took off with little more than the clothes on his back. He was able to retrieve the ashes of his late dog.
Firefighters also evacuated the building next door because the subsidence broke a water line.
A worker with the Luzerne County Housing Authority says the Red Cross was here to help.
He believes most of the dozen people displaced spent the night with friends or relatives.
Distler was moved to a vacant apartment on the site.
The fire chief says the hole did get wider and deeper overnight.
“I hope this building doesn't fall into it because everything I own is in there, and I don't want to lose it, so here we are, the next day, and it's still standing, thank the lord,” said Distler.
William Bobbett lives in a building just across from the subsidence. He worries for his daughters. He worries for his neighbors.
“Kids play over there. People walk their dogs over here. My homeboy was walking his dog two minutes before it happened, so it's scary.”
Bobbett has lived here for two years. He'd like to stay.
The solution to the subsidence, according to Distler, is to demolish his building, so residents will never have to go through something like this ever again.
