One Jackson County Family Left With Three Sinkholes From Flood Damage
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Posted: 1:01 AM Apr 4, 2009
One Jackson County Family Left With Three Sinkholes From Flood Damage
The water levels are receeding farther upstream along the Apalachicola and Chipola rivers. That's revealing the damages left behind from a week's worth of rain and flooding. Jackson County officials stayed busy Friday, examining roads and homes.
Reporter: Vanessa Nguyen
Email Address: vanessa.nguyen@wjhg.com

Jackson County Sinkholes
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The water levels are receeding farther upstream along the Apalachicola and Chipola rivers.
That's revealing the damages left behind from a week's worth of rain and flooding.
Jackson County officials stayed busy today, examining roads and homes.
One Bascom family is dealing with an enormous hazzard in their front yard.

It was hard to see any signs of weather damage in certain parts of Jackson County.
But other areas weren't so lucky.

This large sinkhole developed as a result of heavy rain from the last few days.
The Tillmans say their front yard was extremely flooded until early thursday morning.

Homeowner Stacy Tillman says, "we had just heard a 'thud' and come outside and saw the water draining into a small sinkhole, started as a five foot circle and grew to what you see now...About 45 foot deep."

The family has only been living here for nine months.
The sinkhole even crossed into their neighbor's property.

9-year-old Kyle Tillman spent the day working hard in his mom's shoes.

"(I've) been trying to help get the sinkholes barricaded so no one falls in," he says.

The family and their neighbor put up an exterior fence around the enormous eyesore.
However, this isn't the only one.

"Total of three on the property."

The other one is approximately 25 feet deep.
"There is a huge piece of limestone," says Kyle.

But they are most concerned about the small one that's cracked the side of their house.
"There is water running under the house."

The family and their neighbor have been on-the-phone with their insurance agents throughout the day.
Both say the companies probably won't cover the exterior damage.

Neighbor Travis Bruner says, "I guess that's why they call it home insurance because it only covers your home, not your property."

Bruner and the Tillmans are trying to find alternative ways to fix the problem.

Because there is a possibility the small sinkhole could develop into a larger one, the family is temporarily moving out of their house and staying with relatives.

If the insurance company doesn't cover it, Tillman says it could cost him almost 10-thousand dollars to fix the sinkholes.


Latest Comments

Posted by: Jeff Location: Lynn Haven on Apr 5, 2009 at 07:35 PM

Look on the bright side...free catfish ponds. Most folks would pay good money for those. Property values just went North.
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