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Sinkhole makes grandmother's Holiday home unsafe

Some neighbors allowed to go home
Posted at 4:30 PM, Jul 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-19 17:35:44-04
The home belonging to a Pasco County grandmother is now marked unsafe after a sinkhole opened under it.
 
Officials are closely watching the sinkhole that opened Monday on Genesis Avenue in Holiday.
 
As of Tuesday afternoon, it wasn’t getting any bigger. Some neighbors got the OK to go home.
 
But the next door neighbors haven’t been given the all-clear yet because they are so close.
 
As for the house that’s really threatened, the owner is still hundreds of miles away and feeling helpless.
 
“I cannot believe this happened,” Alice Hammond told me by phone Tuesday.
 
A bad week continues to get worse for Hammond.
 
First the 72-year-old grandmother got in a car accident on the drive to upstate New York. Her car is wrecked.
 
Then the sinkhole formed under her home in Holiday.
 
“What do you have inside that house that’s special to you?” I asked.
 
“Everything. It’s my whole life in that house,” Hammond said.
 
A building inspector slapped a sticker on the home, ruling it unsafe to go inside. Enter at your own risk!
 
“There is the fear of the unknown. [...] I mean the front porch of this house is literally 6-12 inches from falling into mother earth,” Pasco County Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said.
 
Miles away from her home, Hammond is stressed and wondering what to do next.
 
“I’m fine. I’m not worried about me. I’m just worried about my house,” she said.
 
Pasco County actually has a huge mound of dirt left from sandbags during recent flood preps. But it isn't able to use taxpayer dollars for a fix on private property.
 
With no insurance, Hammond will handle all the repair costs herself.