Dozens of Florida vacationers ran for their lives last week as the three-story resort building where they were staying began breaking up and falling into a sinkhole – a gap in the ground that's about 50 feet wide. No one was hurt in the central Florida complex near Disney World. Five months earlier, a sinkhole elsewhere in Florida killed a 37-year-old man when his bedroom suddenly disappeared below ground. His body remains lost. In April, a Chicago sinkhole swallowed parked cars. And in Tennessee, a smaller sinkhole opened last week near a university campus without affecting buildings or people.

More than 19,000 sinkholes have been recorded in Florida, caused by its geology and weather. "Residents typically treat them like the state's other inconveniences of nature like hurricanes and alligators — we learn to live with them," says an editorial in the Ocala Star Banner newspaper. The state sits on limestone, a porous (water-absorbing) rock that easily dissolves. A layer of clay is on top. When limestone erodes, the ground above sinks into weak spots or gaps. Underground caverns and springs add to the problem, as does heavy rainfall.

The Tampa Bay area of Florida is considered "Sinkhole Alley," and some commentators call Florida the "Swiss Cheese State." Starting this fall, two Florida agencies will begin a $1-million federally financed study of sinkhole risks statewide. It'll last three years.

Resort executive says: "Mother Earth controls this." -- Paul Caldwell, president of Summer Bay resort in Clermont, Fla., where Aug. 11 collapse occurred

Professor says: "We're a very rapidly growing city, and we're growing over land that's not particularly suited for it. . . . We need to harmonize with the environment, and we don't do a very good job of that." – Phillip Kemmerly, geoscientist at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., the site of a new sinkhole

State geologist says: "When you move to Florida you get beaches, sunshine, hurricanes and sinkholes. If you live in Florida, they're just a fact of life." -- Clint Kromhout, senior scientist at the Florida Geological Survey