Utility crews this evening are working to restore gas and water service to customers around Horton Street, Wilkes-Barre, after a large subsidence opened under the street earlier in the day.
The massive crater between Church and Warren streets is the second sinkhole to hit the street in less than three weeks. An earlier sinkhole opened up about a half block away on June 25.
No injuries were reported, but Monday's collapse was accompanied by a water main break as well as a gas leak, officials said. The gas leak prompted the evacuation of about 12 people, Mayor George Brown said.
"Our number one concern was to get the gas leak turned off so we could start repairing it," Brown said.
UGI Utilities spokesman John Mason said at 8 p.m. Monday evening that gas was still turned off to 24 customers while repairs continued.
"There's a lot of things happening there at the scene. They're restoring electricity, they're restoring water, and they're restoring our gas service," he said.
The gas restoration process was expected to get underway later Monday night, Mason said, and that process requires customers to be present in the home for crews to access the interiors.
Five customers won't be able to be restored immediately due to more extensive line damage that will need to need to be assessed, he added. It was not clear Monday night how long that might take.
Pennsylvania American Water spokeswoman Susan Turcmanovich said crews anticipated restoring water service to that company's affected customers by about 11 p.m. Monday.
Brown said neither Monday's collapse nor the June 25 incident were related to mine subsidences.
The June 25 sinkhole was caused by the collapse of a trouble-plagued 56-inch terra cotta sewer/stormwater line under Horton Street, officials have said. That line was already earmarked for repairs which were about to begin when the hole opened, partially swallowing a construction vehicle.
The cause of Monday's collapse was not immediately clear.
Brown said city crews had repaired the stormwater line and were still working on the sewer line in the wake of the June 25 collapse, and it was not yet known if Monday's collapse had caused new damage.
"So that's where we were at when we got hit with the one today," the mayor said.
There is another parallel between the two collapses: Both occurred following heavy rainstorms.
Monday's sinkhole, which opened at about 9:30 a.m., swallowed nearly half the width of the street, from the north curb past the yellow center line.
It also comes as part of Horton Street already remained closed to traffic while repairs on the earlier damage continued.
The new collapse means another block of Horton Street is closed to traffic. Brown did say, however, that Church Street remains open so traffic can access the Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre hospital about a block away.
Monday's incident drew utility crews, police and firefighters, as well as Stell Enterprises, the contractor which is working on the sewer repairs, Brown said.
