Broken Pipe Blamed for Indiana Sinkhole

Crews in Fort Wayne, Ind., have started working to repair a broken sewer pipe that created a 20-feet-deep sinkhole in a flood levee.

City public works spokesman Frank Suarez says the clay pipe installed in the 1930s failed and the rushing wastewater ate away the soil until it created a hole 10 feet across and 20 feet deep. The Journal Gazette reports the sinkhole was first reported Tuesday in the levee protecting Lakeside Middle School and its neighborhood from Maumee River flooding.

Suarez says crews were able to set up a pump on Wednesday to drain the sinkhole and that repairs should be finished this week.