Rescuers Give Up on Sinkhole Victim

Rescuers have called off the search for a Florida man who was sucked into a sinkhole under his bedroom late Thursday night, the AP reports. Officials said they plan to destroy the home of 37-year-old Jeffrey Bush and ordered the next-door neighbors to move out before the sinkhole drags them down too. "At this point it's really not possible to recover the body," said a county administrator. He added that "we're dealing with a very unusual sinkhole."

With reporters, onlookers, and engineers buzzing around the quiet street in a suburb east of Tampa, the next-door neighbors cried as they packed boxes. They had been allowed a half-hour to take belongings since being evacuated yesterday. The victim's brother, Jeremy Bush, wept as he lay a stuffed animal and flowers near the house this morning. He said someone came to check for sinkholes a couple of months ago—probably for insurance reasons—but found nothing. "And a couple of months later, my brother dies," said Jeremy. "In a sinkhole." (More sinkhole stories.)