Wilburton Home Sinks Into Mine

WILBURTON, Okla. (AP) _ A home that is slowly sinking into an abandoned mine is one of hundreds of structures that have collapsed this way in Oklahoma over the last two decades. <br><br>Shiffon Ivey says

Saturday, January 11th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WILBURTON, Okla. (AP) _ A home that is slowly sinking into an abandoned mine is one of hundreds of structures that have collapsed this way in Oklahoma over the last two decades.

Shiffon Ivey says she awoke to the sound of loud pops and cracks in her 1,200 square foot home at 3:30 a.m. Monday. Her front door flew open and the house began to slump.

Police in this small southeastern Oklahoma town helped get her utilities disconnected. Firefighters quickly moved out furniture and personal possessions.

The home was built on top of a coalmine, said Henry Roye, a state emergency coordinator for the Oklahoma Conservation Commission. He oversees the state's abandoned mine program.

The home's collapse is one of 310 statewide in the last 20 years.

He suspects Ivey's sinking home is an indication of more to come. Though Oklahoma was not heavily into mining, it does have entire towns, and portions of towns, built on abandoned mines.

The turn of the century mine's wooden roofs can collapse if there is a weak rock stratum above.

``We suspect we're just seeing the beginning of it,'' Roye said.

In Wilburton, Ivey was shocked, said her daughter, Susan Hood.

``Sure enough, about 4:15 a.m. is when the brick column holding up the porch fell, and the whole ground just fell, and the bricks all along the front of her house, you could see about 18 inches of siding where the bottom fell out,'' Hood said.

Ivey is staying with her daughters, but she doesn't know who will pay for her home repairs -- if repairs can be made. Her walls have 4-inch cracks, and bricks have crumbled off the outside. The popping noises could mean wires are breaking inside the walls, and her front porch has been yanked from the house.

``It looks more like an earthquake than anything because there's cracks all around her yard, 10 inches wide,'' Hood said.

Roye roped off Ivey's house and street, which also was sinking. The coalmine was 40 feet by 70 feet, which meant damage to the street and perhaps a house west of Ivey's home.

Homeowners insurance doesn't cover the damage.

Roye said his agency has federal money to stabilize the ground and structure underneath, but not the home.

Roye said the state needs $90 million to $110 million to make its strip and underground mines safe. The money, he said, must come from the federal government, which has about $1.6 billion for such projects but doles it out in small annual amounts.

Oklahoma gets about $1.6 million annually, he said.

Wilburton officials are planning a town meeting to explain the possibility of more collapses, Mayor Karin Woodruff said. Wilburton was built largely on abandoned mines.

``I want to get some experts down to answer questions,'' Woodruff said. ``People, if they don't understand, they get scared of things.''