HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Imagine leaving your home to escape from a powerful hurricane to protect yourself and then trying to get home the next day, only to find that you can't even get there.
That is what's happening just 30 minutes outside of Tampa, as a sinkhole is leaving families trapped with nowhere to turn.
Residents thought there would only be a tree in the house -- but never this.
"It's shocking," one resident said. "I didn't know that's what I'd come home to."
Wendy Warren was at a shelter working to ensure evacuees had somewhere safe to be when she came home, only to find the main road to her home crumbled. The gigantic, gaping sinkhole is trapping families in Riverview with many not able to get their cars.
"I don't know what we're going to do because it's not like we can leave because our cars are stuck that way," Wendy said. "There's like 50 houses stuck that way."
The sinkhole has become a center of conversation for residents as they told each other that the road was washed out. And people are now left trying to haul their groceries and essentials.
Resident Joseph Warren was able to leave and had figured out a plan to move forward before his wife left the shelter.
"I'm going to just borrow my friend's car because they're going to be out of town for a week, so I'll have that to get to and from work," Joseph said.
But this community still needs answers.
"What are they going to do?" Wendy questioned. "Are we going to be stuck here for a long time? Because there's people with little, little kids out here. We just need it fixed."
The county is currently looking into what led to the sinkhole. There's a drainage system in the area but people told 11Alive that they've never seen this happened.
They were told that officials are trying to find a temporary solution, but that could take two weeks.