Anwar El Khouri, 74, has lived in a trailer off Capital Circle Southwest for 11 years. Tuesday, while he took his visiting brother to the mall, a 50-foot sinkhole opened up in his front yard.

El Khouri says he's worried about losing his home as loose dirt continues to fall from the walls of the sinkhole. His mobile home and another hang off the edge of the crater which also swallowed a pine tree. Yellow tape with the words, "Fire Line Do Not Cross," creates a perimeter around the the crater.

El Khouri described how, a couple days ago, he felt his trailer shake and he asked himself at the time: "Did the Earth change?"

He doesn't know why the hole opened.

"They tell me in Florida, it's like this," said El Khouri, adding he never saw one while living in Miami.

A neighbor living roughly 200 yards away from El Khouri in the same Capital Circle Pines mobile home park described how, a few years ago, a smaller "pool-sized" sinkhole opened up near his own house. It has since been filled in, said Victory Crosby, 61.

He said his biggest question, seeing the new hole, is how they happen.

"It's unbelievable to me," he said.

Sinkholes are most often natural occurrences, especially in places like Florida with limestone or ground easily dissolved by water, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). They can be dramatic, such as with El Khouri's front yard, or happen over time. They can be "human-induced" through construction and groundwater pumping, the USGS says.

The states with the most damage occurring from sinkholes are Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

The Tallahassee Police Department responded to reports of the sinkhole Tuesday, and evacuated "several" homes.

"We are really glad no one was injured and our thoughts are with the families," TPD wrote on Twitter. A TPD spokesman added that fixing the sinkhole is not in its jurisdiction.

Deputy Chief Richard Jones with the Tallahassee Fire Department said the departments are going to continue to "monitor" the sinkhole until the Environmental Protection Agency can evaluate it "as an unsafe area." Then it's up to the property owner and the EPA working together to figure out next steps.

El Khouri and his brother, who is visiting from Lebanon until Saturday, are living in a motel off Woodville Highway for the time being with no long term plans. A nephew living in North Carolina sent money to help out, El Khouri said. Right now, he's covering the cost of the room himself.

"I think, 'Maybe I come back here,' " El Khouri said of his home on the precipice of the crater. "But I don't think so."

Contact CD Davidson-Hiers at CDavidsonH@Tallahassee.com, or follow her on Twitter @DavidsonHiers for news about education in Leon County and Florida.

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