Florida man vanishes, after being sucked into sinkhole under his bedroom

March 1, 2013 – SEFFNER, Florida — A sheriff’s deputy plucked a man from an expanding sinkhole, but neither was able to save the man’s brother from being sucked into the rubble, authorities said. Early Friday, authorities said the site at 240 Faithway Drive had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts and the focus would instead shift to a recovery operation. The sinkhole opened late Thursday in the home’s backyard, swallowing one of the home’s four bedrooms.  Someone called 911, and a deputy reportedly found Jeremy Bush trying to pull his brother, Jeffrey, out of the hole when he arrived. The deputy pulled Jeremy from the growing hole. But Jeffrey Bush, 36, disappeared into the rubble. Janell Wheeler was inside the house with four other adults, a child and two dogs when the sinkhole opened. She sat huddled in a lawn chair Friday morning, covered in a green quilt. “It sounded like a car hit my house,” she said. It was dark. She remembers screams and Jeremy rushing to rescue his brother. The rest of the family went to a hotel late Thursday, when the house was condemned and neighbors evacuated. But she stayed behind with her dog Baby Girl, sleeping in her Ford Focus. “I just want my nephew,” she said through tears. Family members returned to the home around 7:30 a.m. Jeremy Bush leaned on a patrol car and cried, his chin shaking as his eyes filled with tears. He said he just gone to bed when he heard a loud noise and cries for help from his brother’s room. Jeremy opened the door and found the dresser and bed had disappeared into a hole. He jumped in and began to dig. But he heard nothing more from his brother before the deputy pulled him from the rubble. “I couldn’t do anything,” Jeremy said Friday, in front of the house where his brother was still buried. “Everything in the room was gone. I just wanted to get my brother back,” he said. “That’s all I wanted.” Wheeler paced the sidewalk nearby and hugged relatives. It’s a dream, right?” she said. –Miami Herald 

contributions Sheldon, Caroline, Dennis