OCALA, Fla. (AP) - A sinkhole that opened up in a restaurant parking lot during a spring storm in north Florida swallowed a car and ruptured a gas line.
The Ocala Star-Banner reports (http://bit.ly/2sr3F0a ) that the sinkhole opened up on Saturday around 5 p.m. after a strong rainstorm that caused flash flooding and the closure of multiple roads.
Seventy-nine-year-old Janet Coyne and her husband returned to their car after picking up food from an Ocala restaurant when the rains began.
The front end of the car suddenly dropped as they were about to leave. Coyne and her 81-year-old husband managed to get out of the vehicle before it fell into the 25-foot-wide, 25-foot-deep sinkhole.
A city official says the sinkhole was likely caused by eroding limestone underneath the drainage system.
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Information from: Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner, http://www.starbanner.com/
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