Sinkhole opens up in front of Columbus home

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A Columbus homeowner came home to a not-so-good surprise after a sinkhole opened up in front of his driveway.

It happened at 1st Street and 7th Avenue South.

Columbus Light and Water General Manager Todd Gale said a sewer line collapsed, causing the road to sink in.

Fred Kinder has lived in South Columbus for 12 years.

He said Monday morning started out like any other day, except for one little thing.

“All I can tell you is I backed out yesterday, went and played tennis, and there was a little hump. When I got back two policemen were here from the road department,” said Kinder.

As it turns out, the hump that Kinder had driven over that morning was moments away from becoming a very large sinkhole.

“It could have happened while I was on top of it,” said Kinder.

Kinder said he’s seen a few sinkholes in Columbus over the years, but he’s never seen one quite this big.

“One of the city officials came out a little while ago and said ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’ This one is bad because it’s a sewer line. They’ve been out here a couple of times because of the odor,” said Kinder.

For now, Kinder has to park on the street. He said the city has to order new parts to fix the issue, and that could take some time.

“They stayed until about 11:30 last night digging it out. Evidently, the man-hole has to be replaced. Everything has to be ordered, and they said it would be a couple of days. That could mean 2 days or 7 days,” said Kinder.

Kinder also said this is a growing issue for the city.

“The infrastructure is really pretty sad, you know because we are on old pipes and manholes and everything,” said Kinder.

Columbus Light and Water is currently working to get this issue resolved and says the process should take a couple of days.