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Sinkhole opens beside couple's house in WV

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mthrlangl

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Couple's sinking feeling

By NAOMI KIMBLE, Journal Staff Writer

MARTINSBURG - Christmas this year isn't going to be quite the way Lacy and Justin Duewel-Zahniser had expected.

Instead of celebrating the holiday in their home off Jasmine Lane, the couple and their two young children will be staying with family elsewhere, they said.

The four were forced to leave their house this week, after a sinkhole opened up near their front porch. Duewel-Zahniser said she was told that the hole could be up to 25 feet deep. She was worried that it could also extend under a portion of the family's home.

"There's a lot of unanswered questions," her husband said, as he peered into the hole Wednesday evening.

http://www.journal-news.net/news/story/1215202005_new01sinkhole_121505_n.asp
 
oh nooooooo! that's awful, mthy, it doesn't get much unluckier than that. hopefully this will somehow make an opportunity for an unusually special christmas. good luck, and stay positive!
 
MTH! I am so sorry to hear about it! I hope that You and Your family will stay strong! :nod:
Hope that the problem will be resolved soon. Good luck and merry christmas.
 
i'm so sorry :( i hope you guys are going to be ok. you'll be in my prayers.
 
mthrlangl said:
Couple's sinking feeling

By NAOMI KIMBLE, Journal Staff Writer

MARTINSBURG - Christmas this year isn't going to be quite the way Lacy and Justin Duewel-Zahniser had expected.

Instead of celebrating the holiday in their home off Jasmine Lane, the couple and their two young children will be staying with family elsewhere, they said.

The four were forced to leave their house this week, after a sinkhole opened up near their front porch. Duewel-Zahniser said she was told that the hole could be up to 25 feet deep. She was worried that it could also extend under a portion of the family's home.

"There's a lot of unanswered questions," her husband said, as he peered into the hole Wednesday evening.

http://www.journal-news.net/news/story/1215202005_new01sinkhole_121505_n.asp
Click to expand...


This is great! Why can't something like this happen to me? This is a wonderful once in a lifetime golden opportunity to start a small tourist business right there in West Virginia....borrow some money or get some investors to put up the money and open the Duewel-Zahniser Cavern.....excavate this sinkhole....shore up the walls so it will be safe to go down there...have the coal mining guys check for gas...install a paved walking path from nearby natural stone, and charge people 10 bucks a head to see D-Z Cavern....put in a small gift shop and maybe a snack bar...print up some t-shirts....get on all the tourist maps...this is a gold mine I tell you.
 
Schizander said:
This is great! Why can't something like this happen to me? This is a wonderful once in a lifetime golden opportunity to start a small tourist business right there in West Virginia....borrow some money or get some investors to put up the money and open the Duewel-Zahniser Cavern.....excavate this sinkhole....shore up the walls so it will be safe to go down there...have the coal mining guys check for gas...install a paved walking path from nearby natural stone, and charge people 10 bucks a head to see D-Z Cavern....put in a small gift shop and maybe a snack bar...print up some t-shirts....get on all the tourist maps...this is a gold mine I tell you.
Click to expand...

Sure. Wanna buy our house? We'll give you full rights to any future marketing campaigns..
 
More newspaper stuff.

And more. It sounds like more and more, we're effed, unless it manages to a) stretch out into the street or b) winds up being an old sewer or something that the county never told us about.

If we live in such a sinkhole prone area, why the hell isn't it required that we buy coverage for it?

Oh, and the tree in our front yard is now leaning at 30 or so degree angle.

Pictures. I have more pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet.

And finally, we got almost everything out yesterday. Luckily, we have very good friends in the area who were willing to help us pack and move everything to either their basements or our newly rented storage facility. If we're never allowed back in our house, we got all the things we really care about :|
 
holy cow, mthy, that sucks. am i seeing things, or is it actually steaming? if so it might be related to a sewer or water line of some kind, i guess.

is the tree leaning towards your house or away from it?

you're really fortunate to have such good friends and such a positive outlook. keep it up!
 
mthrlangl said:
More newspaper stuff.

And more. It sounds like more and more, we're effed, unless it manages to a) stretch out into the street or b) winds up being an old sewer or something that the county never told us about.

If we live in such a sinkhole prone area, why the hell isn't it required that we buy coverage for it?

Oh, and the tree in our front yard is now leaning at 30 or so degree angle.

Pictures. I have more pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet.
lived t
.

And finally, we got almost everything out yesterday. Luckily, we have very good friends in the area who were willing to help us pack and move everything to either their basements or our newly rented storage facility. If we're never allowed back in our house, we got all the things we really care about :|
Click to expand...

Up the road from here in a rural Oklahoma county there's a place where there are dozens of sinkholes left behind from when they mined zinc and cadium and lead several years ago. The mining companies just moved off and left the sinkholes and huge piles of contaminated processed ore. Nobody did anything much because it was mostly Indians who lived there. It ended up on the superfund cleanup site list, but still nobody did anything much until some lawyers started filing lawsuits for these people.

These sinkholes are all around that area and signs are posted warning people to keep out. Animals fall into these and sometimes people.

If it's carst topography that's responsible it's usually in an area where there is lots of limestone...if I remember my geology correctly..the limestone washes out over a long period of time due to underground water and when that happens, you have caves and sinkholes, but that takes a long time usually.

If anyone ever mined in that area, there should be a record of it somewhere. You'll have to know the legal definition of your house and lot/land, and this will be listed as township such and such and range on a map....it was probably surveyed at one point in time and if you look back far enough, you should be able to see if it was ever near or on a mining site.

You might also check into whether or not there is (or was) any kind of factory or industrial site near your property from which you might be getting the results of some type of illegal dumping of industrial waste or drainage system which ended up running under your property. For example they might have had a waste water holding pond which leaked underground and washed over to your place, and this might be a mile or a half mile away..it happens. There might be a record of that as well, especially if they have ever been warned by the EPA or state environmental people.

My suggestion is to write Senator Byrd's or the other WV senators office and tell him/them about this problem and send along those photos you posted here. He is a powerful person and if anyone can help find out what is going on his office can. Make the letter as brief as possible and to the point. The photos say more than words.
 
There's a mine about 1.5 miles from my house. It's entirely possible they caused the sinkhole, but the (ever useless) county engineer said it'd be almost impossible to prove. Basically, we're waiting for the engineering tests to come back before making any more moves.

MJ - yes, it's steaming like mad. And my mom pointed out that there's a manhole cover directly across from the hole, and in fact, it looks like hole is leading out toward it. The tree is leaning away from the house.

Last night, a group of people who've been complaining about building on sinkholes asked me to speak before the county planning commission, and I'd like to think I totall blasted them. The Journal writer was there, and I gave her a copy of my speech (though I decided to add a few things at the last minute), so I'm hoping I'll get in the paper again.
 
yeowza i'm behind on things! i hope everything works out well and it doesn't cost you a fortune to take care of this. :ut-oh:
 
So. The insurance company paid for engineering "tests". The tests consisted of two engineers walking around the hole, dropping a tape measure down (at least 31' deep, btw), and checking for cracks inside the house and in the crawl space. They told me to fill it up with concrete and move back in. When I asked if they were going to perform ..you know ..tests, they said it would cost me a lot of money and tell us what we already know - that yep, there's a hole. And if he found a cavern, "that'd be bad". The long and the short of it is that we're never moving back in. The guy flat out said the hole will open back up eventually, and we're not going to be the ones in the house when it happens. My first choice is to sell it to someone who knows the hole is there and is willing to fix it before they resell or rent out the house. Our second choice is to fill it up and sell it to someone else. But I, personally, have qualms about that. Quite frankly, as long as we come out of this not owing any money, I'll be fairly happy. Justin and I have pretty much decided that we're not staying in the state, but I don't know if we're gonig for a major move or a to-Maryland-or-Virginia move. After this, I'm not even entirely sure I want to own a house again.
 
Oh my gosh, Lacy. That totally totally sucks. All of us here wish you and your family the best... Let us know if you need anything... seriously.
 
31 FEET??! :eek: is there any way to take a picture that illustrates that, or is it through mud and stuff? that's unbelievable

couldn't the expensive "tests" determine if it crosses into public land (seems inevitable at 31' deep, and therefore if the county would have to pay for it?

anyhow, that really blows. at least it wasn't a sudden disaster, and you've had ample opportunity to get everything valuable out of there -- but there's not much more valuable than a home, so that makes it real tough. you have an incredibly good attitude, which i have huge admiration for.

if you wanted to move to florida that'd be pretty rockin' :tongue:
 
A little good news in the midst of the ****. I went by the house today to look at our tree (which now resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa). I found a card from an engineering firm, and when I called him, he said they would be willing to do a little bit of pro bono work for us. I also asked him about what the other engineers said, and he said he agreed with filling it up with concreted, but that we have to dig the dirt out somewhat first to make sure there's not a throat opening to a bigger hole. He and/or his business partner will come supervise the dirt clearing. So that's something.

We're still hoping to sell it to someone who knows it's there, but if not, we'll fill it in and sell it that way.
 
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