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A natural disaster struck without warning in Florida, leaving one man missing and a neighborhood in turmoil.

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A 36-year-old man is missing after a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of his house near Tampa. His brother says the man screamed for help before he disappeared.

The brother heard the loud crash, a scream, and then nothing, which prompted him to try to help the victim and then call 911 for rescue crews. 

“When he got there, there was no bedroom left,” Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said. “There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up.”

“We put engineering equipment into the sinkhole and didn’t see anything compatible with life,” Damico said.

However, Damico would not say that the man is presumed dead.

Authorities estimate that the sinkhole is about 30 feet across, but officials say the sinkhole spreads to about 100 feet across below the surface.

“The entire house is on the sinkhole,” Damico said.

There’s been no contact with the man since then and neighbors on both sides of the Seffner home have been evacuated.

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Other family members in the house were also evacuated and are not authorized to go back inside.

Janell Wheeler told the Tampa Bay Times she was inside the house with four other adults, a child and two dogs when the sinkhole opened.

“It sounded like a car hit my house,” she said.

It was dark. She remembered screams and one of her nephews rushing to rescue his brother, trapped in the debris.

Wheeler’s house was condemned. The rest of the family went to a hotel but she stayed behind with her dog, sleeping in her car.

“I just want my nephew,” she said through tears.

Our thoughts and prayers to the family.

SOURCE: HuffPost