travel discounts: No sign of Fla. man swallowed by sinkhole

Sinkholes are most often found in seven states, including Florida where the ground recently collapsed in Seffner, Fla., near Tampa, sending 37-year-old Jeffrey Bush and his entire bedroom into the earth. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

There was still no sign Saturday of a 36-year-old Florida man swallowed by a sinkhole that appeared under his bedroom, an official said, as engineers continued testing on the unstable ground around the "chasm."

Jeffrey Bush has not been heard from since the hole appeared at about 11 p.m. ET Thursday in Seffner, near Tampa. He is feared to have been killed.

Authorities have said the hole, which was originally 30 feet deep, was ?seriously unstable.? A 100-foot safety zone was set up around it Friday and homes near the hole were evacuated for fear of a sudden collapse.

The sinkhole now poses a safety risk to the residence next door, said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue public information officer Ronnie Rivera at a noon press conference on Saturday. Family members would be allowed to enter briefly along with emergency personnel to recover belongings, Rivera said.

Jessica Damico, public relations officer for Hillsborough County Fire Department, said Saturday that experts resumed working at the site at 7 a.m. ET.

?Right now they are still looking at soil samples and drilling and looking for stability, so they can find the edge of the sinkhole,? she said by phone from the scene.

She said the sinkhole originally seemed to be about 30 feet deep, but said that it now appeared to be about 15 feet. However she added the actual depth of unstable ground was unclear.

Damico said there was still no sign of Jeffrey Bush.

?If you look in, it?s about 15 feet and there?s only sand,? she said. Engineers have been using camera equipment to examine the hole, but the area is still too unstable for people to go onto.

Bill Bracken, the owner of an engineering company called to assess the sinkhole, told the AP Friday that he "cannot tell you why it [the house] has not collapsed yet."

He added that the earth below was a "very large, very fluid mass."

"This is not your typical sinkhole," Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill told the AP Friday. "This is a chasm. For that reason, we're being very deliberate."

On Friday, Jeremy Bush spoke tearfully about how he tried to save his brother.

"I couldn't get him out," he said. "All I thought I could hear was him screaming for me and hollering for me, but I couldn't do nothing."

Jeremy Bush was saved from the hole by Hillsborough County sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duvall, NBC station WFLA reported.

'Really shocking'
Neighbors told NBC station WFLA.com of their surprise.

"It's just really shocking," said Kevin Charles, who lives two houses down from the Bush?s house. "It kind of worries me because ? it could have been any one of these houses along this side over here.?

"I think the issue now is everyone in the area is going to sit back and wonder whether should get sinkhole insurance," said neighbor Steve Hamlyn. "Because we really didn't see a need for it until now."

While some in the neighborhood did not know of the risks, sinkholes are common in Florida, the Associated Press reported, and home insurers are required by law to provide coverage for the sudden disaster.

Florida?s geological makeup increases the likelihood of sinkholes, and more than 500 have been reported in Hillsborough County since 1954, the state?s environmental agency told the AP. A monster 400-foot sinkhole that sucked in a house, five sports cars, two businesses, and part of a swimming pool appeared near Orlando in 1981.

"You can almost envision a piece of Swiss cheese," Taylor Yarkosky, a sinkhole expert from Brooksville, Fla, told the AP. "Any house in Florida could be in that same situation."

At a press conference at 8 a.m. ET Saturday, fire officials announced they had set up an email, accessible at www.firefighter-relief.com, for anyone wishing to send message of condolences or donations to the family.

NBC News' Matthew DeLuca, Gabe Gutierrez, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.