<b>Cars</b> swallowed when street collapses in Charles Village | Maryland <b>...</b>

Posted: 01 May 2014 02:51 PM PDT

Several cars were swallowed after a block-long portion of 26th Street collapsed in Charles Village Wednesday following two days of rain.

Video: Watch 5 p.m. video | Watch 11 p.m. video of car falling over edge

The first calls came in around 3:45 p.m. when the ground started to collapse, taking a retaining wall, sidewalk, gate and cars along with it. The Baltimore City Office of Emergency Management asked people to avoid the area of 26th and North Charles streets.

The sidewalk and streets buckled on 26th Street between St. Paul and Charles streets. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was at the scene to survey the damage.

"We had a street collapse. We're very blessed there are no fatalities," Rawlings-Blake said. "We're extremely blessed that we're talking about property damage and damage to the street and not any loss of life."

No injuries were reported.

Along with emergency departments and first responders who were at the scene, Rawlings-Blake said engineers were checking the structural stability of the homes in the area. She said homes on the unit block of East 26th Street had to be evacuated. There were 19 homes evacuated.

"We are working together right now to put together some resources for individuals whose homes have been impacted. We've had to evacuate the area, and we're trying to help those whose cars have not gone into the sinkhole -- those cars across the street, we're trying to move those out as well," Rawlings-Blake said.

WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Lowell Melser said eight cars fell into a rail tunnel below.

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Rawlings-Blake addressed how the weather could have played a role in the collapse.

"We've gone from a dreadful winter that has impacted our infrastructure to going into a rainy season, a prolonged rainy season that is also impacting our infrastructure, as we can see from this road collapse," Rawlings-Blake said.

Late Wednesday, emergency crews equipped with huge street lights were slowly able to move one of the cars that was in danger of falling over the cliff's edge.

"Now what we're trying to do is make certain we keep everybody out of it, and it's a very methodical approach to try to shore this up. This will be a pretty long process," said Emergency Management and Public Safety Deputy Mayor Bob Maloney.

Read more: Clean-up work begins

Firemen, engineers and CSX officials went into the ditch Thursday morning, which is about a 75-foot drop from the street to the train tracks. The engineers concluded their assessment of the scene and said some debris removal and wall stabilization could begin.

Three backhoes could be seen cleaning debris out of the hole and grabbing cars, which will likely be considered a total loss. Crews were also trying to put a temporary sheathing in place to get CSX rail traffic moving again.

Mobile users tap here to see YouTube video of the collapse

Maryland Department of Transportation officials said inspectors are still trying to determine why it happened and have not yet been able to confirm a cause. Crews were also trying to figure out if the issue may be related to construction in the area or work on the railroad below.

Officials with CSX Corporate Communications released the following statement Wednesday evening: "In Baltimore, Maryland, this afternoon an embankment collapsed onto CSX railroad tracks near 26th and North Charles streets. Train traffic in the area has been stopped. We are working closely with authorities to assess damage, assure public safety and determine the next steps and will provide updates."

Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School on 26th Street was closed Thursday. Staff was asked to report to Coldstream Park School.

Residents who were evacuated were allowed to get some belongings late Wednesday but had to be placed in alternative housing. There was no time frame given on when residents would be able to return home.

BGE said it turned off gas to the evacuated homes and capped the gas line in the immediate area (Story continues below).

Images: Cars swallowed by Charles Village street collapse

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Evelyn

Cars sink into Charles Village ditch

A block-long portion of 26th Street collapses Wednesday, swallowing cars in Charles Village.

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"I'm just overwhelmed. Overwhelmed because I don't know what's going to happen now. I don't know when I'm going to get back in my house. I have animals in my house. I can't find my husband. It's raining," Sharon Zitzer said.

Zitzer is one of the residents who came home to see the street collapse across from her home. She thought her husband's car might be one of the cars that fell, but she found the car parked on another street.

"Yes, the car is safe. Now I (have to) find my poor husband," Zitzer said.

Witnesses react to falling cars

Witnesses said they noticed something was wrong when they saw movement with the parked vehicles.

"It's crazy to see. It's not too often you get to see cars fall into the Earth," said Nash Jenkins.

"The whole room shook, a couple things fell in my room and when I came out, all the cars was down," Jeremiah McNair said.

"It's very scary, which is why I rushed home from work where I work in Columbia. I was terrified it was going to hit our house too," said Judith Kunst.

"The sidewalk has been uneven for a while now, actually. It looked like there was a big hole when I was walking by so I went into my house and came back, and by that time the whole street had fallen in. It happened very quickly," said witness Lucas, who did not share his last name.

Because of the rainy day, Lucas said he thought the sound he heard might have been thunder.

"So I was in my house, and I heard a deep grumbling noise. I didn't think much of it when it happened until I finally got here, and that's when it hit me," he said.

Evelyn, who did not want to share her last name, said that around 3 p.m. she walked to a nearby store and noticed the cars were parked oddly, and on her way back from the store she noticed the cars had been tilted even more to an angle. That's when she realized the street was buckling, and she snapped pictures of the scene and called 311 to report it.

"At that point, there were tires that I could see before that I could not see. They had sunken down completely in the street," Evelyn said. "It was really weird. The cars were parked on a 45-degree angle on what should be a flat street."

While the scene itself is shocking, many residents said they're not entirely surprised. They said they've known that road has had structural problems from years. In fact, WBAL-TV 11 News did a story chronicling the history of the road's problems in 1998.

"We've been expecting this for a long time. We've been patching it up, putting asphalt on it to make it look good, then it washes away and gets another 3-inch crack in it a matter of six months, so this hill has been sliding for a decade," resident Mark Truelove said.

"It was expected because we've reported this over the last couple of years and we were told it was structurally sound. They've patched it up and let it at that, so we've been expecting it," Zitzer said.

WBAL-TV 11 News reporters Kai Reed and Kim Dacey contributed to this report.

Stay with WBALTV.com and 11 News for the latest on this developing story.

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BALTIMORE —