Brooklyn hasn't been known in the past for such disastrous oddities as sinkholes, but lately the borough has had more than its share.
Just a few weeks ago, an enormous, 80-foot pit opened up on 92nd Street, swallowing a tree and leaving a mess so big city officials are still working to clean it up. And on Wednesday, another one opened up just a few blocks away; while this one is only 15-feet deep, it almost took a car with it when it crumbled away. Luckily the owner and her daughter had just gone inside their house and avoided the mess altogether.
"I went in to get my dog to walk her, " Annette Flood said, "and when I came back out, my car was almost in the sinkhole."
There have been several stories this summer about similar holes opening up around the country; a Florida family, for instance, has watched the land around their home cave in systematically as the ground just crumbles away. And just recently, a hole appeared in Colorado and revealed a historic old train tunnel buried underneath.
Sinkholes are formed when groundwater dissolves minerals into the soil, creating a hole that just gets bigger and bigger and pulls more earth down on top of it. They are so dangerous because they can start very slowly and inconspicuously, or quite suddenly like the ones in Brooklyn, which gives homeowners and drivers no time to prepare.
Officials say they are working diligently to repair the streets, and hope to have the latest hole closed up by the end of the weekend.