A huge sinkhole swallowed up a huge chunk of street in Surrey, England Monday night, expanding to the length of a five-story building (65' x 20' and 16 feet deep) by mid-day Tuesday. Then, a second sinkhole popped open soon after, right across the road, measuring 16 feet in every direction. And by Wednesday, residents from at least 30 homes were forced to evacuate.

"The policewoman told us we needed to get out straight away, and in the space of 10 minutes, we got the kids dressed, we grabbed the nearest things that we could find," said one of the residents, via BBC.

"Our house is not secure at all. At the moment we don't know the extent of the damage but we do know we won't be going home for some time." As in at least a few months, according to officials. (See video of the sinkholes below, posted by BBC News.)

From The New York Times:

Since Tuesday, both holes have stabilized and neither are continuing to expand.

In Surrey, a burst water main might have flushed out weak sandstone bedrock beneath the road or caused the collapse of an old, unrecorded sand mine. Or the collapse of a mine roof might have led to the bursting of a water main, said Vanessa Banks, a geologist for the British Geological Survey.

More broadly, the push in Britain to build more houses has meant that more water goes into aging infrastructure, putting more pressure on pipes, she said. Periods of intense rainfall, which are likely to become more common because of climate change, can also put more pressure on the seals of aging pipes, she said.