North Texas Storms Open 45-Foot Wide Sinkhole In Granbury
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
GRANBURY (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Storms and heavy rain are blamed for a 45-foot wide sinkhole that's opened in the parking lot of a North Texas grocery store.
Granbury police say no one has been hurt and the area around the 40-foot deep sinkhole was closed off Monday to traffic.
The area gave way just outside a Brookshire's grocery store parking lot late Saturday amid heavy rain in Granbury, about 25 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Water and sewer lines were damaged.
According to Public Works Director Alva Cox, crews discovered an eight-foot storm drain had collapsed, creating a significant blockage inside the storm sewer system. The significant storm water runoff Granbury saw on Saturday then had nowhere to go. Cox says it saturated and washed out the earth surrounding Lift Station #4, creating the hole and causing the lift station to sink.
The Granbury City Council met in emergency session Sunday to declare a local disaster, clearing the way for immediate repairs.
City spokeswoman Sheri Campbell-Husband said Monday a small amount of raw sewage reached Lake Granbury. She says environmental experts are trying to determine how much waste, diluted when combined with rain, reached the lake.
Campbell-Husband says repair estimates top $500,000.
Crews have put up fencing around the site and the city's asking the public to stay away.
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
