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Hernando Today

Weeki Wachee family sees 3 sinkholes in 8 months

In the midst of a legal fight with insurance company

Submitted photo

A work crew from Lakeland arrived at a house Tuesday along Noddy Tern Road to test the stability of the ground. A sinkhole opened directly underneath the workers’ truck. A tow truck was called to the house later that night to pull it out.

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By TONY HOLT

Hernando Today

Published: July 1, 2009

WEEKI WACHEE - Two sinkholes had opened a few yards from the Ramirez house last winter and the couple grew furious with their insurance company.

They had paid for home repair services, which they desperately needed as their pool leaked and their floors cracked from the unsettling soil under their house, they said.

They hired an attorney, who in turn sent a drilling crew out of Lakeland to check the property at 10467 Noddy Tern Road.

Lana Ramirez's mother, Bobbi Stern, also lives at the house.

"So I guess you'll be coming back tomorrow?" Stern asked the drilling crew.

"No, I think we've found what we needed," one of them told her.

The drillers didn't need to unload their equipment. They didn't need rods or stakes to know whether the yard was unsafe.

The front tires of their truck had descended into the ground. They witnessed the third open sinkhole in person. They called a tow truck to have it removed from the yard later that night.

"We're not sure how safe it is to live here," said Stern, who watches her grandchildren while her daughter and son-in-law work during the week. "They built this house. They put a lot of money into this house. It's really kind of depressing."

Ramirez contacted Hernando Today in November 2008 when a gaping hole opened in her front yard. The hole, which was about 8 feet deep and 6 feet wide, emerged while a contracting firm was replacing the floors in her home.

The workers already had grouted the area below the house and fixed the leaks in the pool. The insurance company, Royal Palm, was reticent about paying to fill the hole in the front yard, Ramirez said.

Ramirez threatened legal action and eventually the hole was filled, Stern said.

A few months later, Ramirez's husband's pickup sank into the ground. She called the insurance company again.

"When we called in that claim, no one came out to take pictures," Ramirez said. "I had enough. I called an attorney."

Her attorney, Billy Ready, did not return two messages left for him on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman with Royal Palm said any information on the open claim and-or legal matter was confidential.

One family was displaced from their Spring Hill house less than two months ago. The couple pulled up to their Orchard Park Road home the afternoon of May 6 to find their garage underground.

Stern fears the same could happen to her family. Her bedroom is adjacent to the garage.

Ramirez said she and her husband have room in their policy for more than $100,000 worth of repairs and services. They think Royal Palm is in breech of its contract.

Ramirez was unsure back in November whether her family could stay in the house. She still does not know.

"I want to stay, but I don't want to risk the safety of my family," she said.

Her neighbor along Bahama Swallow Avenue also has a sinkhole in her yard. She was not at home Wednesday morning when a reporter knocked on her front door.

Unlike her mother, Ramirez did not wish to joke about the irony from the day before – a drilling crew that was hired to check for sinkholes stood by helplessly as the ground swallowed their truck.

"It's awfully scary," she said. "The hole is pretty close to my house and it's right next to the bedroom where I sleep."

Her children are ages 4 and 2. They are not allowed to play in the yard. Her husband built a small playground approximately 50 yards from the house after he had tested the ground himself with some steel rods.

The kids only are allowed to play there and along the driveway, Stern said.

The family's dogs – two Labrador retrievers – mostly stay indoors. They do not roam freely in the yard.

Ramirez wants the sinkholes to be filled and hopes to feel confident again that she and her family are living in a stable home. If she can't get that, she would like to see the insurance company write her and her husband a check and help them secure another place to live, she said.

She works for WellCare Health Plans and he runs a landscaping business. They cannot afford to pay the mortgage on her Weeki Wachee home and pay rent someplace else, she said.

"How many more before it stops?" said Ramirez, who sounded exasperated while she talked to a reporter over the phone. "Does it have to open up and swallow my house before someone does something about it?"

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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