Draining the Swamp: Growing Sinkhole Appears on White House Lawn
Draining the Swamp: Growing Sinkhole Appears on White House Lawn
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President Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp.” But it looks like Mother Nature is doing it for him—by opening up a small but widening sinkhole on the lawn of the White House.
Photos of the sinkhole went viral on Tuesday after Voice of America’s White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman posted them on Twitter, claiming it’s been “growing larger by the day.”
Sinkholes are rare cavities in the ground that can form gradually—or without any warning—due to erosion below. They can be deadly as when they collapse, they can swallow everything above: houses, cars, and even people.
In response to gaping news coverage, the National Park Service tweeted that the sinkhole was discovered on Sunday on the North Lawn of the White House. The agency also said it does “not believe it poses any risk to the White House or is representative of a larger problem.”
This week I’ve been observing a sinkhole on the @WhiteHouse North Lawn, just outside the press briefing room, growing larger by the day. pic.twitter.com/BsFUtxFqpB
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 22, 2018
In fact, there is a real swamp around the White House, Jess Phoenix, a volcanologist, geologist, and a California Democrat running for Congress, told the New York Times. And the recent rainstorms in Washington, DC, plus recent construction on the lawn, may have only made it worse.
“It’s sort of fluids interacting with solids, and gravity taking effect,” she told the Times, “not the gates of hell opening.”
About 20% or so of the U.S. is at risk of developing sinkholes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s because they sit on a carbonate rock, such as limestone, under the soil. Heavy rainfalls or storms can lead to more groundwater to flow below the surface, which can erode the soil, leading to a sinkhole, says Boo Hyun Nam, director of the Florida Sinkhole Research Institute at the University of Central Florida, in Orlando.
Sinkholes are more common in states such as Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, and Texas, and in some parts of Georgia and Pennsylvania.
“It could be big or it could be small,” he says. And “depending on the size of a sinkhole, it’s dangerous.”
Update: The @WhiteHouse sinkhole is now a cover-up. pic.twitter.com/X031j3SL0u
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 22, 2018
Sinkholes, while unusual, aren’t unheard of in Washington, DC. In January 2017, one opened up and a school bus full of special-needs children fell in. Everyone was safely evacuated and no one was hurt, according to NBC. In March of this year, two Washingtonians were forced to leave their homes due to a growing hole.
This isn’t the first sinkhole that the president has had to contend with. About a year ago, one appeared outside of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, FL. But Mother Nature wasn’t to blame for that one—it was the result of a recently installed water main, city officials said.
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