Sudden ‘ground collapse’ prompts evacuation at condo community, Texas officials say

Multiple homes were evacuated after a sudden “ground collapse” at an upscale condo community in Houston, Texas, officials said.

Firefighters responded to the scene at 405 Sutherland Terrace Place, on the city’s west side, after a large portion of a shared greenspace sunk down, destroying infrastructure and exposing concrete slabs and underground piping, the Houston Fire Department said in a July 27 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Photos shared by the department show the damage, and while officials didn’t say how deep the hole is, it’s clearly far below ground level.

Firefighters evacuated eight homes “as a precaution,” officials said, adding that “building engineers are on location assessing the damage.”

Firefighters initially believed people were trapped and in need of rescue at the scene, but that didn’t end up being necessary, and nobody was hurt, KPRC reported.

Officials said that the collapse was not caused by a sinkhole, but likely happened due to heavy rain recently, which overwhelmed an underground cistern holding flood water, Capt. Beau Moreno told KTRK.

This story was originally published July 28, 2024 at 8:28 AM with the headline "Sudden ‘ground collapse’ prompts evacuation at condo community, Texas officials say."