Sinkhole swallows two cars whole as firefighter heroes rescue mum and daughter
A sinkhole swallowed two cars trapping a woman and her child who had to be dragged out by a team of firefighters while floodwater was quickly filling the hole.
The horror scenes took place in Los Angeles amid the deadly storm raging in California, US, which has so far claimed the lives of 17 people.
Footage released on Tuesday shows the cars fully submerged in the large and growing sinkhole, one on top of the other.
The chasm was nearly the width of a street, with huge chunks of pavement and the cars deep inside, approximately 15' below ground level.
The mum and daughter were trapped in the bottom vehicle, and so the firefighters initially attempted to bring ground ladders and lay them down to span the hole and reach the victims, but this was not successful.
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Firefighters in California raced to rescue a mother and daughter trapped inside a vehicle after a sinkhole opened in a roadway Monday evening (CBS)Meanwhile, the road continued to slough and although firefighters tried to stabilize the vehicle, it was shifting and starting to roll within the sinkhole.
Crews then used an aerial ladder to position the rescuers over the hole.
A firefighter was lowered down with a rope and reached the woman and the child with a harness before they were both dragged up to safety.
The mum and daughter were then taken to the hospital with minor injuries. A team of 50 firefighters was involved in the rescue in the suburban Los Angeles neighbourhood.
A sinkhole opened in a roadway Monday evening and swallowed two cars as storms continue to pound California (CBS)More than half of California’s 58 counties have been declared disaster areas, while many areas saw unprecedented amounts of rain coupled with furious winds and even hail and lightning that knocked down trees and damaged electrical lines.
As a result, more than 50,000 homes and businesses around the state have been left without power on Wednesday, according to the website Poweroutage.us.
Mudslides damaged some homes in Los Angeles hillside areas, while another sinkhole in Santa Barbara damaged 15 homes.
Some people found themselves stranded in small communities inundated with water and mud.
Firefighters arrived to find one car on top of another in the sinkhole (CBS)A pickup truck driver and a motorcyclist were killed early Tuesday when a tree that had been struck by lightning fell on them, authorities said.
Repairing the damage may cost more than $1 billion, said Adam Smith, a disaster expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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The wet and blustery weather left California’s large homeless population in a precarious situation.
At least two homeless people in Sacramento County died and more than a dozen people were rescued from a homeless encampment on the Ventura River.
The sinkhole opened as heavy rainfall drenched the area (CBS)The most recent atmospheric river — a long plume of moisture stretching into the Pacific that can drop staggering amounts of rain and snow — has eased in some areas.
But thunderstorms and another powerful weather front are expected to hit the state again on Friday and last until Tuesday, January 17.
Despite the rain, most of the state remained in extreme or severe drought, according to the US Drought Monitor.
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