Tragic final moments of screaming man who died when sinkhole swallowed his entire bedroom
A man's final moments before dying in a sinkhole were revisited, 10 years after his tragic passing.
Jeffrey Bush was asleep in his home in Seffner, Florida, USA, on 1 March 2013 when he was suddenly swallowed by a 20 feet (6.1 metre) wide sinkhole, which was approximately 100 feet (30.5 metres) deep.
He would never be seen again, as he sunk into the ground below his house.
Sinkholes can occur due to rocks such as limestone or chalk breaking down, when carbonic acid in rain drops filters through the rock and reacts with it, dissolving its structure.
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The 37-year-old was left helpless, and his final moments were emotionally recalled by his brother, Jeremy.
He showed up to Jeff's Tampa home on that fateful day, and witnessed his helpless brother in the sinkhole.
Speaking in an interview with Fox13, 10 years on from the event, he said: "I opened up the door and there was a big hole there. His bed, dresser, everything was gone, he was gone.
"I jumped in the hole immediately...started digging because I heard him yelling for me... 'Jeremy please help me'," he said to the news publication.
Unfortunately, he couldn't save his helpless brother, and his remains were never found.
Jeremy was back at his brother's resting place when the sinkhole reopened in 2023, after it had also opened up in 2015.
Opening up more to WFTS, he said: "Ain’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my brother,
"Stuff that happened in that house that night, and hearing my brother yell and scream for me to help him, I hear it all the time.
"When I'm not working, I try to come by here and visit him because it's the only place I got to visit him.
"It's his last resting place. It's hard seeing the hole back open again."
The second time it opened up, it was filled with a water-gravel mixture, which eventually fell through eight years later.
After it opened up in 2013, Hillsborough County bought the home next to the site to ensure that nobody lived too close to the sinkhole.
Nobody was injured in the 2015 reopening of the sinkhole.
Following the 2023 reopening, officials ensured the community that it was safe to stay in their homes, though they were initially unsure about what the exact cause was.
A new 150-ton mixture of water and gravel would be used to fill the hole up once again.
The site remains closed to the public, and is surrounded by two layers of fence, according to the county.
Joshua Nair