State College, PA (WJAC) — Dozens of residents have been displaced, and their townhomes abandoned, since Christmas weekend after a sinkhole opened up in their neighborhood.
The large sinkhole appeared in the parking lot of the Park Forest residential area in Patton Township sometime over the weekend.
Residents living along Amblewood Way were forced to leave their homes during the holiday after a reported water line break caused the ground to open up.
Some area residents claim that no one has taken responsibility for the issue and they say that officials failed to communicate what happened in a timely manner.
Over the holidays, Dana Costa was staying with her mother, who lives in the complex.
"My mother's 86, she has mobility issues, she has cardiac issues, and she has two cats and [I'm] trying to find something safe for her so she doesn't have to leave a town that she's lived in since 1976," she tells 6 News. "It has been impossible."
Steven Noll, who lives across the street from the sinkhole, tells us: "It brings up the concern of what else could possibly be affected, as far as the local area and not getting any communication from anyone, makes it kind of tough to see what's going on because, you know, it's an elementary school next door."
Since the evacuation, Costa says "it's been a mix of people denying blame, denying responsibility."
"From the people I've spoken with," she continues, "we've had no success with our personal homeowner's insurance because our insurance covers from sidewalk to sidewalk and not common areas, which are managed and insured by the HOA, like the parking lot, like the parking lot where the sinkhole has occurred."
Noll notes that "if anybody would need a hand, you know, we're a neighborhood, we try to help each other out, but without any communication it's hard to, you know, to help anyone."
The sinkhole is also located across the street from the Park Forest Elementary School.
A school spokesperson says district officials are monitoring the situation but says they have no reason to believe that it will affect their operations.
6 News also obtained a copy of an email sent to residents from the Georgetown Park Community Association, stating that there will be a public meeting held on the incident next Friday morning at 10 a.m. at the Patton Township Municipal Building.
Stay with 6 News online and on-air for further updates to this developing story.
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