First Irma, now a sinkhole in The Villages

THE VILLAGES, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - People in a Villages neighborhood thought that after Hurricane Irma passed, they'd dodged the bullet. Instead, they woke up the next morning to a huge sinkhole under their homes. John Susko's neighbor started ringing the doorbell around nine in the morning, after the storm.

“He came in, ringing frantically the doorbell, saying hey, you've got a problem, you've got to come see this! You've got a sinkhole!” Susko recalled.

The monster sinkhole is undermining the house. Its walls are already starting to crack.

“My air conditioner went in, that ripped-out the electrical power to the house - pulled the box right out of the wall,” Susko said.

Only yards away, in the backyard, is an even bigger sinkhole. The Sumter County Sheriff's Office ordered everybody to vacate the area.

“We can't go in, we were forced to leave. This is the only clothes that I have. All of our stuff is still in there - we can't go in,” Susko said.

For now, Susko and his wife are staying with nearby friends and hoping insurance will cover everything.
“We're waiting for the insurance company to tell us what our options are,” Susko said.

People living there are hoping that the sinkhole can get filled-in and they can move back into their homes. But for now, four houses on either side of the hole are officially condemned.