\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJack Johnson thought his northwest Cape Coral home would be where he spent the rest of his life. Now, he fears the ground beneath it is collapsing.\u201cI\u2019m scared,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cMy house is going to fall in a hole.\u201dJohnson said cracks and sinking first appeared near his driveway last summer, around the time construction began on a nearby 7-Eleven. Since then, he said the damage has spread through his driveway, yard and the street in front of his home.A surveyor told the family the roadway outside their home has dropped nearly a foot and a half.\u201cThe ground has shifted all around my house,\u201d Johnson said.Johnson, a retired disabled veteran, said he cannot afford to move and has tried making repairs himself to keep access to his garage.His wife, Denise Johnson, said she first contacted the City of Cape Coral in July and has documented the damage ever since.\u201cIt just keeps getting bigger and bigger,\u201d she said.The city has posted warning signs, restricted traffic and begun investigating the issue, but the Johnsons say they still do not have clear answers as to what is causing the subsidence. Dr. Rachel Rotz, a hydrogeology professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, said several factors could contribute to sinking ground in Southwest Florida, including drought conditions, underground fill material and nearby construction.\u201cWe are rapidly developing,\u201d Rotz said. \u201cWe are altering our hydrology all of the time.\u201dRotz said subsurface imaging would likely be needed to determine the exact cause.For now, the Johnsons say they are living in fear as the cracks continue to spread closer to their home\u2019s foundation.\u201cIt just got worse and worse and worse,\u201d Johnson said.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Jack Johnson thought his northwest Cape Coral home would be where he spent the rest of his life. Now, he fears the ground beneath it is collapsing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m scared,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cMy house is going to fall in a hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said cracks and sinking first appeared near his driveway last summer, around the time construction began on a nearby 7-Eleven. Since then, he said the damage has spread through his driveway, yard and the street in front of his home.<\/p>\n
A surveyor told the family the roadway outside their home has dropped nearly a foot and a half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ground has shifted all around my house,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Johnson, a retired disabled veteran, said he cannot afford to move and has tried making repairs himself to keep access to his garage.<\/p>\n
His wife, Denise Johnson, said she first contacted the City of Cape Coral in July and has documented the damage ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just keeps getting bigger and bigger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The city has posted warning signs, restricted traffic and begun investigating the issue, but the Johnsons say they still do not have clear answers as to what is causing the subsidence. <\/p>\n
Dr. Rachel Rotz, a hydrogeology professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, said several factors could contribute to sinking ground in Southwest Florida, including drought conditions, underground fill material and nearby construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are rapidly developing,\u201d Rotz said. \u201cWe are altering our hydrology all of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rotz said subsurface imaging would likely be needed to determine the exact cause.<\/p>\n
For now, the Johnsons say they are living in fear as the cracks continue to spread closer to their home\u2019s foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just got worse and worse and worse,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Johnson thought his northwest Cape Coral home would be where he spent the rest of his life.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,119054,211,210,187,17934,1178,104,9305,1179,320,5052,9467,119057,213,16878,119055,119056],"class_list":["post-278918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-couple-fear","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-city","tag-crack","tag-damage","tag-entertainment","tag-ground","tag-gulf-coast-news-app","tag-home","tag-house","tag-johnson","tag-johnsons","tag-late-news","tag-roadway","tag-rotz","tag-time-construction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}