Friday, May 4, 2012

Sinkholes & Hurricanes

Well, it has happened again.   Another sinkhole here in the Orlando, Florida area.   The people heard a noise in their backyard and came out to see this 100 foot wide and 50 feet deep sinkhole in the back yard.   Now as they say, that is the bad news and now for the good news.    What?   How can there be any good news to this?    This beautiful house is a rental.
The people moved out along with their belongings and I guess that it will be up to the landlord to pay for any repairs or losses.    As I understand the house does have some cracks in the walls.    The sinkhole is so close to the house and who knows how much bigger it will get.
This "good news, bad news" about the sinkhole reminds me of the "good news, bad news" from Hurricane Andrew.
The destruction from Hurricane Andrew was terrible.   Whole neighborhoods were just flattened.
I lived in Miami, Florida at the time and went through the ravages of GHurricane Andrew.   A few days after the hurricane I was sitting in Bob's office with some other guys and we were all gloomily swapping tales of destruction that we had suffered from the storm.  
Tale after terrible tale unfolded.   Then Bob told his tale.   He said that the windows had blown out, the doors had blown off, and the roof was gone.    He was smiling as he told his tale.   I said "Bob, how can you smile?".   He laughed and told me that the house was a rental.   The problems with the house were going to be the landlords problem.   So I guess that there is something to be said about rentals.  
     There is speculation that the sinkhole may be due to the recent drought that we are having here in Central Florida resulting in the water table dropping.   The rains will come to be sure but the questions is when.    I know, I know, when the rainy season comes I will probably be complaining about all of the water and flooding.   Have a good day from the land of hurricanes and sinkholes.   Oh yeah, and don't forget the shark bites at the beach.   And the good news?   We have Disneyworld to cheer us up.    My favorite place.    As the say at Disney, "Have a magical day".   Lew

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