A 50-inch sewer pipe ruptured in Brooklyn, New York, causing a giant sinkhole to open up in Bay Ridge. The hole was 20 feet deep and 15 feet wide.
"There's fairly clear evidence that we have a defect in the pipe," said James Roberts, of the New York Department of Environmental Protection. "I don't know what the nature of the defect is, and we won't know until we're able to dig."
The DEP has no reason to believe the broken water pipe was weather-related, but rather due the age of the sewer line. The pipe that broke was 100 years old.
Cars parked near the sinkhole had to be removed because they began tipping into orifice. A video posted on Youtube captured emergency crews cautiously retrieving a vehicle from danger at the edge of the hole after nearly two hours. A bulldozer arrived on scene to clean up the concrete and debris.
This is the second incident of a sinkhole in Bay Ridge. Earlier this summer, 11 families had to be evacuated due to a 60-foot sinkhole opened up in front of their building.
