Second Sinkhole Forces Ohio Families From Their Home

June 30, 2014

More families are being forced from their homes after another sinkhole opened atop an abandoned Ohio mine.

About a half dozen families moved into temporary housing on Wednesday after a task force of state and local officials asked them to leave their homes in the Muskingum County community of White Cottage, about 50 miles east of Columbus.

The homes are built atop the abandoned Jonathan Mine.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has had workers in the area since a 25-foot-deep, half-acre-wide sinkhole opened there earlier this month.

The agency, which regulates mining and abandoned mines, says it now plans to build a barrier to protect the public from wandering into the sinkhole area.

It wasn’t clear how long the residents will be displaced.