When Sinkholes Attack: From Orlando to Montreal

If you're certain your feet are on solid ground, you may want to reconsider. In Florida and parts of Canada, sinkholes are more common than hurricanes, but scientists find it's far easier to forecast weather than to predict where the earth may open up.

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The mysterious sinkhole ...

About 35 tourists are thankful to have ground to walk on after a giant sinkhole swallowed part of the Summer Bay Resort near Florida's Disney World a week and a half ago. Sinkholes and hurricanes are common safety threats in Florida. But hurricanes can be seen coming, their paths predicted and alerts issued. Sinkholes often give very little warning.

• Florida resort villa partially collapses in sinkhole -- The Associated Press

And it's not just Florida, Canada has it's own problems with sudden and hungry shifts in the earth.

• Dr. Derek Ford is a professor emeritus at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and a highly-influential Canadian geomorphologist. A book he co-authored is considered definitive by those who work on sinkhole science. And it's a science he's studied for five decades.
  

• BooHyun Nam is a civil engineer and an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida. He believes he can save lives and money with closer study of his state's shaky foundations.
  
  

This segment was produced by The Current's Shannon Higgins and Theresa Burke.

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