A deadly sinkhole in an industrial part of San Antonio swallowed two cars Sunday evening, killing one person and nearly trapping another who had to be rescued by passersby.
The chasm opened just after 7.30pm in an area where the city is engaged in an "aggressive, vigorous, replacement program" for aging sewer pipes, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor said on Monday.
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One dead after driving into Texas sinkhole
At least one person was killed in Texas, US after driving into a massive sinkhole that opened up on a flooded street during a night of drenching rains.
The 12-foot sinkhole appeared near a connection between a pipe that was replaced a year ago and pipe that is decades old, officials said.
The pipe was visible in photos from the scene, which showed two toppled, submerged cars in a massive hole.
![The sinkhole swallowed two cars.](/web/20161206195852im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/4/s/f/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt4oui.png/1481023620670.jpg)
The Bexar County Sheriff's Office identified the victim as a reserve sheriff's deputy, Dora Linda Nishihara.
We are heartbroken to confirm Deputy Dora Linda (Solis) Nishihara passed away after her car fell into a sinkhole Sunday. pic.twitter.com/fETVaqrrCJ
â Bexar County Sheriff (@BexarCoSheriff) December 5, 2016
Nishihara was a part-time deputy at the county courthouse, the sheriff's office said, and officials said she was in uniform at the time of her death.
Her car was upside down, almost completely submerged and filled with gravel, dirt and other debris by the time emergency officials arrived at the scene, Fire Chief Charles Hood said at a news conference.
![The sinkhole swallowed two cars, leaving one woman dead.](/web/20161206195852im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/4/o/v/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt4oui.png/1481023620670.jpg)
"Being that this car was 90 per cent submerged, and had been in the water for an unknown amount of time, the survivability of anyone in that vehicle, there was no way they were going to survive," Hood said. "The car was upside down."
"Our thoughts and prayers are with her friends and family," the sheriff's office said on Twitter.
![San Antonio Fire Department workers at the scene.](/web/20161206195852im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/4/s/f/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt4oui.png/1481023620670.jpg)
The fire department brought in a crane to help lift the vehicles out of the expanding sinkhole.
At least one had been removed by late Monday afternoon.
Working against firefighters: rains that caused a flash flood warning for most of San Antonio, sewage oozing into the hole from the broken pipe and trains that threatened to destabilise everything whenever they rumbled by.
The sinkhole "was a lot bigger than last night," Robert Puente, the chief executive of the San Antonio Water System, said at the Monday morning news conference. "Every time the train [went] by, we saw pieces of earth falling in."
The Washington Post