Swaths of Pennsylvania and many other states are honeycombed with old, unstable mines that can cause the earth to suddenly give way and threaten people and property.

That’s what searchers in Westmoreland County, just southeast of Pittsburgh, fear led to the disappearance of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard. Pollard and a young granddaughter were looking for a lost cat when she went missing Monday evening. At about the same time, a sinkhole appeared roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from where she had parked her car, in an area above an old coal mine. The granddaughter was found safe inside the car hours later.

The search for Pollard turned from a rescue effort into a recovery operation Wednesday, as authorities said they did not expect to find her alive.

Mine subsidence has caused billions of dollars in damage in the U.S. In Pennsylvania, where mining dates to the late 1700s, coal was mined in nearly half of the state’s 67 counties and there are at least 5,000 abandoned underground mines, leaving behind hazards that officials say can arise at any time.

There are as many as 500,000 abandoned mines nationwide — far outnumbering those that are still active, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. They dot the landscape of coal country and sprawling Western states where mining was common. People have died falling into them, and some murderers have tried to hide victims’ bodies by dumping them in open mine shafts.

The sinkhole in Westmoreland County appears to have resulted from a catastrophic collapse, suggesting the roof of an old mine gave way suddenly after sagging for years, said Professor Paul Santi from the Colorado School of Mines Geology Department.

”If it’s dropping say, half an inch a year, you can use satellite information to detect that and monitor if it is getting worse or not,” Santi said. ”But you can also have these really quick ones that are harder to predict. That’s what happened in this case. You have this roof collapse and overnight a sinkhole appears.”

The Marguerite Mine that authorities believe resulted in the sinkhole was last operated in 1952 by the H.C. Frick Coke Co., according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The coal seam in the area is about 20 feet (6 meters) beneath the surface.

The family of 6-year-old Eli Hart, who was shot and killed by his mother in 2022, on Wednesday reached a $2.25 million wrongful death settlement with Dakota County.

The lawsuit, which was filed three months after Eli’s death, accused the county’s Social Services department of gross and willful negligence when it returned Eli to the custody of his mother, Julissa Thaler.

“It is definitely a bit of a relief just to have some resolution to this very long case,” said Josephine Josephson, Eli’s stepmother. “It’s a lot of stress to have an ongoing case with a delicate subject.

“I think Dakota County, obviously, they agreed to our settlement without taking any faults. But I think that they truly know that something did go wrong and that they should make corrective actions.”

The settlement stipulates that $1.2 million be paid to Eli’s father, Tory Hart. Three of the boy’s grandparents will receive $25,000 each. The balance of the settlement will cover attorney fees and other costs.

In the years since Eli’s death, his family has created the Eli Hart Foundation. Josephson said Wednesday that the settlement will help the organization establish a scholarship fund and create a legal assistance service for parents who don’t have the means to fight for custody of their children.

“It’s a scary place to be,” Josephson said.

At least 100 University of Minnesota students living in Comstock Hall had no heat in their dorm rooms this week as temperatures dipped below freezing.

Officials say the issue was expected to be resolved by Wednesday night. About two-thirds of the dorm rooms in Minneapolis on the East Bank were fixed by mid-afternoon.

University officials said about 100 out of the hall’s 356 total rooms were affected by the lack of heat, first reported by FOX 9. Last week, maintenance began receiving a higher-than-normal number of requests to fix heating in dorm rooms, though some reports had been made earlier, said Susan Stubblefield, the U’s director of housing and residential life.

“Due to the nature of the heating system in the building, the scope of the problem was not known until reported by residents in each individual room,” Stubblefield said.

A warm fall season and having students leave for the holiday break meant the “full impact of the issue was unknown until the temperatures dipped in recent days,” she said.

Mechanics began working extended hours, including over the Thanksgiving weekend, to make repairs, Stubblefield said.

Air pockets had entered the heating system when maintenance was conducted during the system’s transition from cooling to heating, and that affects the system’s efficiency. The pockets affected some units more than others, Stubblefield said.

To fix things and regain full efficiency, maintenance staff has to clear out the air pockets from the fan coil unit in each individual room. Students were given electric space heaters until maintenance could get to their rooms, Stubblefield said. It’s possible some additional rooms could be affected.