Florida sinkhole swallows parts of resort near Disney World

Resort collapses into sinkhole on tape

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: A guard is hailed for helping to save "lives, or limbs, or injuries"
• Witness says couple, infant escaped through window after door frame collapsed
• Two buildings at the Summer Bay Resort in Lake County are affected
• All of the estimated 35 guests in the two buildings were evacuated and accounted for

(CNN) -- A 60-foot-wide sinkhole formed under a resort in central Florida late Sunday, forcing guests out of their rooms as one three-story building collapsed and another slowly sank.

Guests at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, about 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, called for help before the collapse, saying they heard loud noises and windows cracking. All guests inside the buildings -- an estimated 35 people, authorities said -- were evacuated before the first structure crumbled.

Sinkhole eating family out of house and home

A roughly 15-foot-deep crater swallowed much of one building, Lake County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Cuellar said. Aerial video from CNN affiliate WFTV showed one end of the building -- which had held two-bedroom, two-bathroom villas -- still standing, but the rest reduced to a pile of debris.

A 60-foot-wide sinkhole formed under a resort in central Florida late on Sunday, August 9, forcing guests out of their rooms as one three-story building collapsed and another slowly sank.

Inspectors look over damage to buildings on Monday, August 10.

Guests at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, about 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, called for help before the collapse, saying they heard loud noises and windows cracking.

All guests inside the buildings -- an estimated 35 people, authorities said -- were evacuated before the first structure crumbled.

Florida is notorious for mammoth sinkholes. In February, a sinkhole opened beneath a suburban Tampa home, swallowing 36-year-old Jeff Bush from his bedroom. Bush's body was never recovered.

Florida resort sinkhole

Florida resort sinkhole

Florida resort sinkhole

Florida resort sinkhole

Florida resort sinkhole

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Photos: Florida resort sinkhole

Resort guests only had minutes to escape

Watch resort get swallowed by sinkhole

See sinkhole swallow resort near Disney

Sinkhole swallowing resort near Disney

A 60-foot-wide sinkhole formed underneath the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, Florida, about 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, on Sunday, August 11. One resort building collapsed, and another slowly sank. The estimated 35 people inside the buildings were evacuated. Click through for a look at other sinkholes throughout the world.

A backhoe is swallowed by a sinkhole in Montreal, Quebec, on Tuesday, August 6. A business owner says city officials ignored his warnings that there was a problem before the heavy machine tumbled in. The driver of the backhoe was not injured but was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

A sinkhole killed a guard in a construction site in Shenzhen, in China's Guangdong province, on Wednesday, March 27. The sinkhole might have been caused by heavy rains and the collapsing of old water pipes running beneath the surface, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

Workers watch the demolition of the house where a sinkhole opened beneath the bedroom of Jeff Bush three days before in Seffner, Florida, on Sunday, March 3. Sinkholes caused by acidic groundwater corroding the limestone or carbonate rock underground are common in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Tropical Storm Agatha caused a sinkhole to open in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in May 2010.

In Orlando, a sinkhole 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep swallowed trees, pipelines and a section of sidewalk near an apartment building in June 2002.

A water main collapsed an entire block-long part of Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica, California, in December 2002.

An aerial photo shows sinkholes created by the drying of the Dead Sea near Israel in 2011.

A 30-foot-deep sinkhole appeared in a busy street in a suburb east of downtown Los Angeles. A motorist drove into the hole but was rescued before a concrete slab fell onto the car.

A utility worker examines the area around a sinkhole caused by a broken water main in Chevy Chase, Maryland, in December 2010.

A fire truck protrudes from a sinkhole as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talks to reporters in September 2009.

Construction on a subway line caused a huge sinkhole to form in a road in Beijing in April 2011.

Buildings fell into a sinkhole near a subway construction site January 2013 in Guangzhou, in south China's Guangdong province. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and 30 feet deep and was without casualties, according to a state media report.

A man inspects a 40-foot-deep sinkhole that a family found after they heard a booming noise in their kitchen in July 2011 in Guatemala City.

A basketball court in Ortley Beach, New Jersey, fell into a sinkhole caused by Superstorm Sandy in November 2012.

"The Great Blue Hole" is the name of a massive underwater sinkhole off the coast of Belize. The deeper you go, the clearer the water becomes, revealing amazing stalactites and limestone.

When the ground gives way

Photos: When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

When the ground gives way

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Photos: When the ground gives way

The evacuation started after 10:30 p.m., when a guest told a security guard about a "window blowing out," said resort president Paul Caldwell.

After another window broke in the guard's presence, the guard called a co-worker and, together, they got everybody out.

"He estimated, I think, about 40 minutes after everyone was evacuated, the big fall came," Caldwell said about the first guard.

"His quick thinking, in my opinion, saved lives, or limbs, or injuries," he said.

No injuries were reported.

A couple and their infant escaped through a window because a door frame had collapsed, witness Maggie Ghamry told WFTV.

"He, his wife and an infant, he had to break the window so they could escape," Ghamry told WFTV. "There were windows breaking everywhere.

"One woman was sitting in the tub, and the tub levitated, and that's when she just grabbed a pair of shorts and came out with nothing."

CNN affiliate WFTV: Buildings damaged

That woman wasn't the only one to leave belongings behind. Other guests left keys and bags in their rooms, and it wasn't clear Monday whether guests would be able to get items back from parts of the collapsed building, Caldwell said.

The resort has made other rooms available to all of the affected guests.

"Those items ... to be very bluntly, realistic -- may never be retrieved," Caldwell said. "They are not going to let us in there to go get stuff for people."

Sinkholes: Common, costly and sometimes deadly

Florida is notorious for mammoth sinkholes. In February, a sinkhole opened beneath a suburban Tampa home, swallowing 36-year-old Jeff Bush from his bedroom. Bush's body was never recovered.

Sinkholes often start when bedrock dissolves but the surface of the ground stays intact. The void eventually collapses.

Living with a sinkhole under your home

CNN's Martin Savidge, Holly Yan and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.