Residents on McLawren Terrace in the Village of Calumet are living with uncertainty as the number of sinkholes in their neighborhood multiplied from three to six within less than 24 hours.
At about 3 a.m. Thursday, residents were awakened by a loud bang. Marion County sheriff’s deputies were soon pounding on doors, ordering residents out of their homes.
Two homes adjoining the Torri Pines golf course were damaged when sinkholes opened in close proximity to their foundations. Marion County authorities placed red stickers on the houses which forbid entry. Two homes on each side of the red-stickered houses were tagged with yellow stickers. The yellow stickers allow residents to remove items from the home, but do not allow their occupancy.
This caused considerable consternation for one Villager who discovered the yellow sticker on his house Thursday afternoon. No one from the county had told him of the ban or how long it would be in effect. He later learned he would have to have an engineer certify that the house is safe to occupy. His sinkhole insurance will pay for the inspection, but that will take a few days.
Residents also watched as technicians used ground-penetrating radar to examine the area surrounding the homes. One of the Villagers was told by an engineer that there is some concern that material under the road may have been eroded by the opening of the sinkholes and draining of the pond.
