25-foot-wide sinkhole near Levi’s Stadium devours 2 cars

A sinkhole near Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara spread to nearly 25 feet and swallowed at least two cars late Wednesday night, according to city officials.

A 12-inch recycled water pipe leaked and caused flooding in a commuter parking lot near Stars & Stripes Drive, triggering the incident, said Lon Peterson, a spokesperson for the city of Santa Clara.

“City Water & Sewer Utilities staff worked quickly to shut off the water supply; however, street flooding still occurred,” Peterson wrote in a statement.

Utility staff were on the scene Thursday doing cleaning and repairs.

A KTVU news chopper captured footage of a crane removing the two vehicles from the muddy hole.

Sinkholes occur most often where the rock below the Earth’s surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can naturally be dissolved by groundwater circulating through them, according to the United States Geological Survey.

“As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground,” according to the USGS. “Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces just get too big.”

Sinkholes have caused the most damage in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

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