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Giant sinkholes in a South Dakota neighborhood leave some families “panicked and stuck”
Stuart and Tonya Junker loved their quiet neighborhood near South Dakota‘s Black Hills – until the earth began collapsing around them, leaving them wondering if their home could tumble into a gaping hole.
They blame the state for selling land that became the Hideaway Hills subdivision despite knowing it was perched above an old mine. Since the sinkholes began opening up, they and about 150 of their neighbors sued the state for $45 million to cover the value of their homes and legal costs.
“Let’s just say it’s really changed our lives a lot,” Tonya Junker said. “The worry, the not sleeping, the ‘what if’ something happens. It’s all of it, all of the above.”
Sinkholes are fairly common, due to collapsed caves, old mines or dissolving material but the circumstances in South Dakota stand out, said Paul Santi, a professor of geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. The combination of such large sinkholes endangering so many homes makes the Hideaway Hills situation one to remember.
“I can say just from having taught classes about case histories with geologic problems that this would be a case that will end up in textbooks,” Santi said.
Tonya Junker via AP
Crews built Hideaway Hills, located a few miles northwest of Rapid City, from 2002 to 2004 in an area previously owned by the state where the mineral gypsum was mined for use at a nearby state-owned cement plant.
Attorney Kathy Barrow, who represents residents who live in 94 subdivision homes, said the state sold the surface but held on to the subsurface and it did not disclose it had removed the soil’s natural ability to hold up the surface.
Some of the land slightly sunk over time after the subdivision was built, and a hole opened up beneath a back porch, but the situation escalated after a large sinkhole opened up in 2020 near where a man was mowing his lawn. That prompted residents to connect with Barrow and testing revealed a large, improperly sealed mine beneath the northeastern part of the subdivision, and a 40-foot-deep (12-meter-deep) pit mine in another corner of the neighborhood, Barrow said.
Since that first giant collapse, more holes and sinkings have appeared and there are now “too many to count,” Barrow said. The unstable ground has affected 158 homes plus destabilized roads and utilities.
In one spot, an old truck can be seen in a hole beneath a house porch, still resting where a landowner pushed it into a mine cavern in the 1940s, Barrow said.
The area near the 2020 collapse has been vacated and gated off, but people still live in many of the other homes, usually because they can’t afford to leave.
Residents are panicked but stuck, Barrow said.
“They’re worried about school buses falling into a hole. They worry about their houses collapsing on their children in their beds at night,” Barrow said. “I mean, you spend your whole life putting money and building equity in your home. It’s your most prized asset, and these people’s asset had become not only worthless but almost a negative because they’re dangerous to live in.”
An attorney for the state declined to comment, but the state has asked a judge to dismiss the case.
In court documents, the state entities being sued said they “would like to express their sincerest sympathies for many of the property owners” and called the sinkhole formation “tragic.”
Still, the state argued that it wasn’t the fault of officials.
Tonya Junker via AP
“Those truly liable in this case are the developer, the initial realtor, and the numerous homebuilders who knowingly chose to build over an abandoned mine while purposefully hiding its existence from the homebuyers purchasing in Hideaway Hills,” the state said.
In court documents, the state traced the area’s mining history to the 1900s, noting a company that mined underground and on the surface before 1930. Beginning in 1986, the state-owned cement plant mined for several years.
The state claimed it wasn’t liable for damages related to the underground mine collapse because the cement plant didn’t mine underground and the mine would have collapsed regardless of the plant’s activities. Around 1994, a horse farmer bought the land and then later sold the property to a developer who encountered a deep hole, the state said in documents.
The state said it couldn’t have known that the developer, homebuilders and the county would move ahead with the neighborhood’s development despite allegedly knowing about the past mining and underground voids.
In 2000, the South Dakota Legislature approved the sale of the state cement plant. A voter-approved trust fund created from proceeds of the sale stands at over $371 million.
For the Junkers, the lawsuit is their best hope of escaping from a nightmare.
Tonya Junker said her husband was going to retire this year, but now he has to work longer, taking on two jobs to save money in case they are evacuated.
“That’s a hard pill to swallow,” she said.
The Junkers have lived 15 years together in the neighborhood, in a home built in 1929 and moved to the subdivision as one of the first homes in the neighborhood. They gutted and remodeled the structure and planned to make the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home their base for retirement.
Stuart Junker said he simply wants to be paid what his house is worth.
“It’s just kind of disappointing that the state won’t take care of us,” he said. “I mean, this is their problem.”
BOSTON – A young boy undergoing cancer treatment at a Boston hospital got a big surprise when he was greeted by actor Ryan Reynolds.
The “Deadpool and Wolverine” star surprised 8-year-old Nash on Friday at Mass General Hospital for Children, where he’s being treated for a rare form of cancer.
It all started when Nash’s mother sent Reynolds a picture of her son’s radiation mask, which is decorated to look like Reynolds’ superhero alter ego, Deadpool. Reynolds replied he’d love to meet Nash in Boston. The whole visit was a surprise.
Reynolds signed Nash’s mask and even did a Facetime call with his “Deadpool and Wolverine” co-star Hugh Jackman, so he could talk to Nash too.
Reynolds wrote about the meeting on X (formerly Twitter) and said, “Wish every kid needing treatment got it here. And I wish every parent with a sick kid could put their kid in hands this capable. Nash, you’re the best. Love you, pal.”
CAMERON COUNTY, Texas — The maker of the popular party game Cards Against Humanity is accusing Elon Musk’s SpaceX of trespassing on and damaging a plot of vacant land the company owns in Texas.
In a lawsuit filed this week at a Texas court, Cards Against Humanity alleges SpaceX has essentially treated the game company’s property — located in Cameron County — as its own for at least the past six months.
The lawsuit said SpaceX, which had previously acquired other plots of land near the property, has placed construction materials, such as gravel, and other debris on the land without asking for permission to do so.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cards Against Humanity, which is headquartered in Chicago, had purchased the plot of land in 2017 as part of what it said was a stunt to oppose former president Donald Trump’s efforts to build a border wall.
The company said 150,000 people had each contributed $15 towards the effort.
Over the years, Cards Against Humanity says the land has been maintained in its natural state. It also says it contained a “no trespassing” sign to warn people they were about to step on private property.
The company is asking for $15 million in damages, which it says includes a loss of vegetation on the land.
President Biden showed off a slice of his Delaware hometown of Wilmington to the leaders of Australia, Japan and India as he hosted what is likely the last gathering of the Indo-Pacific partnership that has grown in prominence under his White House tenure.
When Mr. Biden began his presidency he looked to elevate the so-called Quad, which until then had only met at the foreign minister level, to a leader-level partnership as he tried to pivot U.S. foreign policy away from conflicts in the Middle East and toward threats and opportunities in the Indo-Pacific. This weekend’s summit is the fourth in-person and sixth overall gathering of the leaders since 2021.
“It will survive way beyond November,” Mr. Biden declared as the leaders gathered at the Archmere Academy, his high school alma mater in nearby Claymont for joint talks.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Biden hosts leaders at his Wilmington home and high school alma mater
The president, who has admitted to an uneven track record as a scholar, also seemed tickled to get to host a gathering with three world leaders at the school he attended more than 60 years ago. He welcomed each of the leaders individually for one-on-one talks at his nearby home before they gathered at the school for talks and a formal dinner.
“I don’t think the headmaster of this school thought I’d be presiding over a meeting like this,” Mr. Biden joked to fellow leaders.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came for the summit before their appearances at the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week.
“This place could not be better suited for my final visit as prime minister,” said Kishida, who like Mr. Biden, is set to soon leave office.
Earlier, the president warmly greeted Kishida when he arrived at the residence on Saturday morning and gave the prime minister a tour of the property before they settled into talks. Kishida, according to the prime minister’s office, thanked Biden at the outset of their meeting for inviting him to meet at his home.
White House officials said holding the talks at the president’s house, which sits near a pond in a wooded area several miles west of downtown, was intended to give the meetings a more relaxed feel.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan described the vibe of Mr. Biden’s one-on-one meeting with Albanese, who stopped by the house on Friday, as “two guys — one at the other guy’s home — talking in broad strokes about where they see the state of the world.” He said Mr. Biden and Albanese also swapped stories about their political careers.
The Australian leader remarked that the visit had given him “insight into what in my view makes you such an extraordinary world leader.”
Modi also stopped by the house on Saturday to meet with Mr. Biden before the leaders gathered for their joint talks at Archmere.
“There cannot be a better place than President Biden’s hometown of Wilmington to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Quad,” Modi said.
Reporters and photographers were prohibited from covering Mr. Biden’s individual meetings with the leaders, and Biden does not plan to do a news conference — a question-and-answer appearance that is typical at such international summits.
What Biden hopes to accomplish with the summit
As part of the summit, the leaders were set to announce new initiatives to bolster maritime security in the region — with enhanced coast guard collaboration through the Pacific and Indian oceans — and improve cooperation on humanitarian response missions. The measures are meant to serve as a counterweight to an increasingly assertive China.
Mr. Biden and Modi had been expected to discuss Modi’s recent visits to Russia and Ukraine as well as economic and security concerns about China. Modi is the most prominent leader from a nation that maintains a neutral position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sullivan said “that countries like India should step up and support the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity” and that “every country, everywhere, should refrain from supplying inputs to Russia’s war machine.”
The gathering was also an opportunity for Mr. Biden and Japan’s Kishida to bid each other farewell.
Mr. Biden and Kishida, who are both stepping away from office amid sliding public support, count the tightening of security and economic ties among the U.S., Japan and South Korea as one of their most significant accomplishments. The two leaders sat down for their wide-ranging, one-on-one conversation on Saturday morning.
The improved relations between Japan and South Korea, two nations with a deep and complicated history that have struggled to stay on speaking terms, have come amid worrying developments in the Pacific, including strides made by North Korea in its nuclear program and increasing Chinese assertiveness.
Mr. Biden commended Kishida for demonstrating “courage and conviction in strengthening ties” with South Korea, according to the White House. They also discussed China’s “coercive and destabilizing activities” in the Pacific, Russia’s war against Ukraine and emerging technology issues.
Tension surrounds Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel
The U.S. and Japan are negotiating through a rare moment of tension in the relationship. Mr. Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the two candidates in the 2024 presidential election, have opposed a $15 billion bid by Japan’s Nippon Steel to take over American-owned U.S. Steel.
Biden administration officials indicated this week that a U.S. government committee’s formal assessment of the proposed deal has yet to be submitted to the White House and may not come until after the Nov. 5 election.
Sullivan pushed back against speculation that the expected timing of the report could suggest Mr. Biden is having second thoughts about his opposition to the deal.
The Biden administration promised that the leaders would issue a joint statement containing the strongest-ever language on China and North Korea to be agreed upon by the four countries.
The White House said the leaders later Saturday will roll out a new collaboration aimed at reducing cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific. The announcement is related to Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative, a long-running passion project of the president and his wife, Jill Biden, aimed at reducing cancer deaths. The Bidens’ son Beau died in 2015 at age 46 of brain cancer.
As Mr. Biden’s time in office draws down, the White House also was celebrating the bipartisan, bicameral formation of a “Quad Caucus” in Congress meant to ensure the longevity of the partnership regardless of the outcome of the November election.