An Oregon sinkhole yawned open Thursday during a torrential rainstorm, shutting down a stretch of Highway 101 in the town of Harbor.
"It's massive. There's just no other way to describe it," Jared Castle, Department of Transportation spokesman for southwest Oregon,
told NBC News.
Castle explained that the sinkhole continues to grow, and is the very close to a massive sinkhole that opened Dec. 13 in a nearby restaurant parking lot.
The two sinkholes "probably have now met," Castle said.
Talking about the newest sinkhole, Castle guessed it to be deeper than 60 feet.
"It's a monster," he said.
Thus far, there have been no injuries as a result of the new sinkhole, but officials have opened up both north- and south-bound detours that involve leaving the highway and using side-streets.
The detour could add five to 10 minutes to commuters' trips.
According to the Curry Coastal Pilot, the sinkholes have been accompanied by a landslide, which "broke a local water main" and was "taking out trees in the slow-moving wake of mud."
The newspaper added that repairs are estimated to take at least a week.
The Oregonian reported that, in addition to photos posted to the Department of Transportation's Twitter page, "Kyle Rice, a Brookings High School graduate, posted a YouTube video of drone footage that was shared with the department."