Massive driveway sinkhole traps elderly Detroit woman in home

DETROIT (FOX 2) - An elderly woman is trapped in her home due to a sinkhole at the end of her driveway.

"In January I noticed a crack in the driveway at the edge of the street," said Cassundra Griffin, homeowner. "The next thing I know like a week later it was bigger."

Griffin said she contacted the City of Detroit several times and kept sending pictures of the growing hole at the end of her driveway on Glenhurst.

"They sent somebody out here like maybe three times," she said.

But the hole only got bigger.

Months later, it is now so big, she can’t get out of her driveway without driving on the grass.

"Like I can’t go anywhere like at night or nothing like that, but in the daytime I'm worried about falling in the hole. At night I’m not even going to chance it," she said. "I’m just stuck here.

"There might be a car in front of my house or car in their driveway. And it just gets overwhelming to me, all this right here. It's really got overwhelming to me and I shut down for a little while you know."

Then her niece contacted FOX 2 which called the City of Detroit and within an hour we got a response.

A statement that the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has known about the problem since January.

The statement said the delay in fixing the cave-in is unacceptable — especially given the fact that it is blocking her driveway. The city is promising to prioritize the issue this week, and apologize to Cassundra.

She is now breathing a sigh of relief.

"It was overwhelming all the things I was going through you know," she said. "Thank you."