Sink Hole near Disney World Resort takes Out Building, No Injuries

Hotel guest vacationing near Disney World received a rude awakening when a sink hole began to tear apart the building in which they slept Sunday night. All guests were able to safely evacuate but some left behind car keys, passports, medications, and valuables. There were no injuries resulting from the collapse of the building.

Windows blew out from their frames, the building cracked, and the ceiling began to give out. In a frenzy guests evacuated as the ground beneath their Lake County rooms opened. Guests had only 10 to 15 minutes to escape the collapsing buildings.

Building 104 from Summer Bay Resort on U.S. Highway 192 in the Four Corners area, located about 7 miles from Walt Disney World resort sank into a hole about 60 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep.

"My heart sunk. I was sick to my stomach," resort president Paul Caldwell told reporters.

At around 10:30 p.m. he received a call from his staff that the luxury condominiums that were only 15-year-old and filled with guests were sinking into the ground.

"No doubt there would've been injuries if they hadn't gotten the building evacuated," he said during a live news conference.  After the windows began to shatter, a guest ran into the street to flag down resort personnel.

Richard Shanley was on duty as the security guard last when the building sank. He sprang into action and helped nearly three dozen guests evacuate the sinking building.

"It was scary. You don't know what to do. But you do what you can do to get people out," he said.

Shanley said the event played like a movie. He ran to one of the buildings to try to wake up guests as the ceiling collapsed and glass shattered. People were petrified and confused, he said.

"I had to run literally from end to end of the building to get people out. While you are running by, pieces of the building are falling down behind you," he said. "So you just do what you can and get out.”

He said guests were afraid that the building might cave in with people inside.

"Some of them were like 'are you serious,' Shanley said. “Some of them were screaming and hollering. I was trying to calm them down as best as I could."

Children were terrified and protested to their parents against being trapped in a collapsing building during a vacation when they were to be out having fun.

Guests like Maggie Moreno in the adjacent edifice, Building 105, were not allowed back into their rooms although their building was still standing. Moreno, who is from San Antonio, was on vacation with her family and had been staying on the third floor of Building 105 for two weeks and were upset they could not go back into their room to retrieve their personal belongings.

“We heard a ruckus, and my husband said, 'What's going on?'" said Maggie Moreno, 48. "You could hear the buckling of the building. You could hear it snapping like popcorn, pop, pop, pop."

They met a young couple with an infant who were staying in Building 104 and had to climb out of a window when the building started to sink and break apart.

Resort management gathered guests into the onsite clubhouse until they were able to provide additional accommodations for those who were affected.

If you were injured while staying at a resort, make sure to contact an Orange County personal injury lawyer. They’ll be able to help you sort out who will pay for your injuries and your losses.