Cave collapse

[Greenwood_60]

What was the flow like in Madison at the time?

[Yannis]

Yes, it was 1999. The Bruic family owned it then. Mike Bruic had ask Steve Berman to inspect the location which was at the HalfHitch. At that time Gary Gentile was down so Steve ask me and Gary to join him on the dive.
The reason I remember this so well is what happened. Steve was leading the dive, I was in the middle followed by Gary. When we came to the sand slide we could see the line going under the sand and reappear about 8 feet away. Now instead of gaping the jump we ALL visually jumped it and went further into the cave.
Once we turned the dive I was still in the middle and Gary was now the lead diver. Once we came back upon the sand slide I knew we had messed up. It must have shifted some more because we now had a huge cloud of zero vis to swim thru.
With no line to follow since it was buried Gary shot into the cloud and I followed. I ran straight into a wall of solid rock. I rose to the ceiling and could see faintly TWO lights shining toward me. Somehow Steve had bypassed me and both him and Gary were now on the line.
I joined them and we all exited the cave alive. I also remembering making the comment somebody is going to die here. The following weekend my comment came back to hunt me. Two were loss.i


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Was the fatality that occurred in 1999 due To debris breaking the line at the half hitch? I know the line was broken but haven't been able to find out if a cave in physically caused the line to snap. Thanks

[SlowDiver]

I couldn't say what broke the line. Could have been the weight of the sand or a diver trying to pull it out of the sand. The flow was down at that time. There was litigation with the death so the cave became inactive for a while before the State of Florida took over.


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[Kelly Jessop]

Was the fatality that occurred in 1999 due To debris breaking the line at the half hitch? I know the line was broken but haven't been able to find out if a cave in physically caused the line to snap. Thanks

The accident happened after the half hitch movement,but everything had been covered by a very fine clay,which was easy to stir up. The line wasn't broken,but buried in the debris. There was a white line that was installed,but a contribuatory factor for the accident was supposedly there was a line arrow facing the wrong way that lead them back into the cave. Their computer download verified this. Sometime later the Bruics sold the site,and it became state property but had a contractors handling the place would vacillate between opening it to diving or not. This wasn't due to the accident,but due to ineptness. Once it became a state park,diving has been allowed. Can shifting at the half-hitch happen again-yes,but nobody knows what was the cause.

[Brent]

@brent the century tunnel, is that on the left when going towards the godzillan room. There's a large drop on the left. I wanted to check that area when I did the circuit. Loved the look of that drop

Yes, what used to be the Century Tunnel is off to the left of the Monkey Room or Banana Room ( forgot which ) You drop down to the left under a duckunder of sorts and then come to what used to be a two inch jump. Taking the jump to the right would bring you back to the well which went down into the Century Tunnel. It was a very short swim to the well. Less than 100 feet I would say. The line went down into the Century Tunnel and then straight ahead for a short distant before walling out.

[sandy]

The only time I've had my exit blocked was when I came out of Sin Nombre in Cozumel and someone whose name sounded an awfully like "Sandy" was filling up the exit from the cave.

LOL - About jumped out of my wetsuit after I felt your response

[Duncan Price]

There was that guy in Europe who died a year or two ago going through a restriction with the sand sloughing back down the angle of repose as he was digging through. But that was just the configuration of the cave, I think, not an "event."

Éric Establie in the Grotte de la Dragonnière in October 2010. He passed a through an opening at the bottom of a mobile slope and it slumped in trapping him.

There have been rockfalls in dry parts of Ogof Daren Cilau which have been observed to have taken place after there have been earthquakes in the area - in 2002 one dumped a load of rock just upstream of the exit from the sump that connects with the resurgence. For a while we had to climb over a sandbank to get out until floods distributed it downstream. The UK is seismically active with 20-30 earthquakes large enough to be felt each year - there was a magnitude 4.1 near when I am in February.

[Kelly Jessop]

. Big, virgin breakdown in a dry cave can get scary when multi-ton pieces start sliding about.

I agree. What amazes me is a new sink hole will form in Florida and you will get someone who will comment they want to take a look for going cave. Mostly these comments are in jest,but eventually someone will make the Darwinian move of being the first to check out a newly formed sink.

I gained a lot of respect with the large shift of material that occurred at Pothole in Peacock. That bank is shifting into the opening,and sometime in the future it will rain a lot of debris into the cave,and possibly choke out the sink hole opening.

[Squirrel Girl]

Éric Establie in the Grotte de la Dragonnière in October 2010. He passed a through an opening at the bottom of a mobile slope and it slumped in trapping him.

There have been rockfalls in dry parts of Ogof Daren Cilau which have been observed to have taken place after there have been earthquakes in the area - in 2002 one dumped a load of rock just upstream of the exit from the sump that connects with the resurgence. For a while we had to climb over a sandbank to get out until floods distributed it downstream. The UK is seismically active with 20-30 earthquakes large enough to be felt each year - there was a magnitude 4.1 near when I am in February.

Thanks, Duncan.

[patpicos]

@kelly pothole id not much of a hole anymore. Last time I was there, barely any light was showing and the sink from the surface was nearly clogged.
I agree at some point, there will be some debris rain