18-foot sinkhole opens up in Long Beach backyard

 

The sudden appearance of an 18-foot-deep sinkhole in the backyard of a Long Beach home has created a stir in the quiet neighborhood--and frustration for the homeowner.

John Steube, 39, said the hole was discovered about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, when he let his dog Snow out of the house in the 100 block of East 36th Street.

"I heard him start yelping, whimpering.... like scared," said Steube of Snow, a mix of German shepherd, Rottweiler and Dalmatian. "He ran into the house again, and jumped on my bed."

Thinking Snow might have been startled by a squirrel or opossum, Steube grabbed a flashlight and went outside to investigate.

And there it was, "a huge hole at the back of the house, adjacent to the walkway," he said.

He wasn't immediately sure what to do.

"I was just frightened," said Steube, who has lived about a dozen years at the home he shares with his 13-year-old son, Kyle. "You just don't go into your backyard and see an 18-foot hole."

He first called his grandmother, who has owned the home since the early 1970s.

Steube said he learned the depth of the fissure after he called public works officials, who in turn contacted the California State Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. But scant information has been available, Steube said.

"I haven't gotten an explanation," he said. "They didn't have any clue. They just said they've got to do some investigating."

The hole is about 20 feet away from an oil well drilled in 1925, said Don Drysdale, a spokesman for the state Department of Conservation. But the well had been capped in 1950, about 12 feet under the surface, he added.

Conservation department officials could not confirm whether the hole in Steube's backyard had been a well at one point.

"Preliminary investigations didn't find anything to indicate this was an oil or gas well," Drysdale said. "There was no wellhead or casing."

The conservation department was waiting for Long Beach officials to determine whether there was anything at the bottom of the sinkhole, where there was standing water.

"Maybe there's something under the water that changes our perception, but until that's determined we can't do anything," Drysdale said. "We're in a holding pattern until we hear from the city."

Long Beach officials had no comment but confirmed they had been to the site.

Steube, who had been trimming tree branches near the site earlier in the day before the sinkhole was discovered, was grateful the ground had not given way. He was equally thankful Snow did not fall in.

He has barricaded the cave-in with chairs and pieces of old board, and his plumber has surrounded it with caution tape.

The spectacle has attracted friends, neighbors and the curious.

"They come walking through, saying they want to see who's become famous," Steube said.

-- Ann M. Simmons

Video credit: KTLA

 

Comments

[dude]

Same thing happened in my mothers backyard. 3-4 ft. diameter hole and alot deeper than this one.

Step-dad fell in partially and caught himself with his arms on the rim of the patio that gave way. Public works came out and said these were used way back as leach pits for sewage and instead of backfilling them when they were no longer needed, they were often covered with wood/board and then dirt.

Well decades later, the wood rotted and the weight of the brick patio was finally enough. They are pretty common from what I hear in the LA Basin and there aren't good records of where they are.

We backfilled this thing at OUR expense.

[danny]

or could have been a giagantic gopher. glad to see no one fell in the hole, especially a small kid.

[mutantbuzzard]

Holes attacking dogs, scarry.

[tenpils]

NIMBY!

[Jim Townes]

Remind me to check if my house was built on a former oil field (of course I always check to see if it was an Indian burial ground).

[Thotseed]

Probably a precursor to a huge earthquake on the way in just days ahead.

[Herbert44]

Prarie dogs attack again

[JC]

hole-ly cow Batman!!

[Rich Ziert]

Something to think about: The authorities are being elusive because you may now be the proud owner of a new oil deposite?

[Pervin_1999]

Wow my mom lives only a block away from there...very very nice $$$ neighborhood believe it or not

[Thotseed]

LA Times is incredibly censoring people's comments. If they don't like them they just axe them. The hole opened up as a precursor to a big quake soon. But they won't print that and that's sad. What a hypocrit for freedom of the press! Only freedom is their own not the PEOPLE!

[West Valley Dave]

Ever think about putting in a swimming pool?

[Tony B]

I worked as a soils tech on several projects in the Long Beach area a few years ago. Much of the area consisted of demo fill, which means some type of organic material including wood and such, the result of demolishing a building would be used as fill. Once decomposed it leaves voids which in turn lead to sink holes. My guess is this is what took place in this case. These days organics are only allowed if they are smaller than the size of a finger or maybe up to six inches. I worked all over the SoCal region and, by far, Long Beach/Seal Beach were the worst.