On the morning of December 31, 2012, the back wheels of a City of Harrisburg garbage truck caved into a sinkhole on N4th Street between Maclay and Woodbine streets. The sinkhole, which had been emerging for the past few years, is the result of a broken water pipe and the subsequent erosion of soil underneath the roadway. In a quick fix months ago, the City had put a safety cone in the growing hole then proceeded to place a board over it citing a lack of funds to do anything more.

The collapse of the truck into the street caused gas and water pipe breakages. Once the truck was removed, UGI was able to beginning probing the area in order to better assess the situation. It was discovered that below the two inches of macadam of the roadway, there was no soil for 10-15 feet. All the earth had eroded away, and nothing was supporting the street for most of the block.

As 2012 drew to a close, the toil began to properly fill and fix the sinkhole and consequent line breaks. A crew of Harrisburg Bureau of Water workers along with UGI workers had no choice but to spend New Year's Eve repairing the broken infrastructure.

At around 11:00pm, a second sinkhole felled the street thirty feet away causing more pipe breakage and gas leaks.

As this was all occurring, the Mayor of Harrisburg, Linda Thompson, gleefully rang in the New Year in Downtown counting down the annual Strawberry Drop. It is reported she never made a visit to the N4th Street disaster. In fact, residents were publicly asking, "Where is the Mayor?"

It has been asserted that the City of Harrisburg failed to directly notify and update the residents. Initially, a "Boil Water Advisory" flyer was placed on the doors of each affected residence, but the later call for evacuation was merely issued in a press release. Many of the residents of the 29 homes asked to evacuate have rebuffed the call to do so.

by Tara Leo Auchey

photo by Natalie Cake