Covered by two wooden boards and a cinder block, a sinkhole hole has existed for several weeks on FM 508 outside of Harlingen.
"I think it's dangerous,” said Harlingen homeowner Oralia Young. “I might fall into it and get killed.”
The crater is just a couple of steps away from the pedestrian curb in front of Oralia’s home.
It's large enough to swallow up a child, which has Oralia concerned.
"I'm afraid that someone is going to have an accident and I’m the one that's going to be sued,” said Oralia.
The homeowner contacted the city but since her property is on the county line, it's the state's responsibility to fix the gaping hole.
"They said that they had the backhoe in the shop and I said you mean you only have one,” said Oralia. “Then they told me they couldn’t come now.”
After little help from the state Oralia called us, desperate to get the hole repaired.
Action 4 News spoke to a representative from the Texas Department of Transportation in a telephone interview.
He says the state will finally fix the obvious danger to both pedestrians and drivers.
"We have to call spot utilities before we dig,” said TxDOT Assistant Area Engineer Ricardo Gallaga. “We have to determine what is causing the problem, it might a utility line there or an irrigation line.”
Gallaga said Spot Utilities should be assessing the problem in the next 48 hours but just a few hours after Action 4 News called on them, repairs were already underway.
Oralia Young says when TxDOT showed up to cover up the sinkhole they discovered the crater was actually bigger than first suspected.
TxDOT promised us an update once the hole is plugged.
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