Rescuers end effort to find body in Fla. sinkhole

[The Straight Story]

SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) -- Officials have called off the effort to recover the body of a man swallowed by a sinkhole below his Florida home.

Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said Saturday that they were ending the effort to Jeff Bush's body.

Bush was in his bedroom Thursday night in his home about 15 miles east of Tampa when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five others in the house escape unharmed.

Merrill says officials planned to bring in heavy equipment on Sunday to begin demolishing the home.

He says "we're dealing with a very unusual sinkhole."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SINKHOLE_SWALLOWS_MAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-02-17-18-38

[Tempest]

1. How can it be considered an unusual sinkhole?

Especially since this is also in the article:

"Experts say thousands of sinkholes erupt yearly in Florida because of the state's unique geography, though most are small and deaths rarely occur."

"There's hardly a place in Florida that's immune to sinkholes," said Sandy Nettles, who owns a geology consulting company in the Tampa area. "There's no way of ever predicting where a sinkhole is going to occur."

The state is prone because it sits on limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water, with a layer of clay on top. The clay is thicker in some locations - including the area where Bush became a victim - making them even more prone to sinkholes.