Over in Italy, they had a significant COVID-19 spread this past spring, and then they locked down and things got better, and then, of course, they let up and the virus came back with what they call a vengeance. So they're deep in it again, and they needed this like they needed a giant hole in the parking lot of a major hospital.
They had to go on backup power over the weekend at the Hospital Of The Sea in Naples because a giant sinkhole opened in the parking lot, forcing the closure of a residence for recovering COVID-19 patients. It was fortunate that backup systems kept water and electricity working well enough, and no injuries were reported. Regional governor Vincenzo De Luca said the residence would be open again once utilities were fully restored.
The hole is 66 feet deep, 21,527 square-feet on the surface swallowed three cars on the visitors' parking lot. There would have been many more cars there, but visitors are currently restricted.
“Frankly, we were also worried about the collapse of all utilities and that the activity of the hospital could be jeopardized,” De Luca said. “Thank God, this did not happen. We had a power break, but electricity was restored and now we don’t have any problem in providing care.”
Chief firefighter Cmdr. Ennio Aquilino told an local television channel called SkyTG 24 that it all might have been caused by a huge infiltration of underground water underground after heavy rains there recently.
The U.S. Geological Survey says sinkholes are most often natural events that can take place in a huge area suddenly, or happen slowly over time. Mankind can create them inadvertently, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Sinkholes can be dramatically fast, or happen over time. They can also be "human-induced" through construction and pumping groundwater.
Impressive as it seems, a 66-foot-deep sinkhole is nothing, compared to the world's largest, a 2,100-foot echo maker found in China in 1994.
And we thought 2020 was over with.
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