‘Don't stop screaming’: Long Island woman swallowed by 8-foot sinkhole in her backyard, thought she was going to die on her birthday

“People suffocate, and they die, so I thought that at first,” Tammone told CBS News New York. “I couldn’t breathe well, because I was gasping, and scared and crying.”

Tammone’s cry for help caught the attention of her neighbor Christine Chanowsky, who, with the help of another neighbor, immediately called 911. “At first, we thought she was in the shed or something. “We were not looking on the ground,” Christine Chanowsky told CBS New York.

Both neighbors told Tammone “don’t stop screaming” until they could locate her position. Within minutes, emergency responders brought Tammone up with a ladder. “Firemen, cops, ambulance, special unit, EMTs — they were wonderful,” Tammone said.

A physical therapist by trade, Tammone is currently recovering from whiplash and muscle pain from the fall.

Recognizing the danger of at-home sinkholes

Sinkholes are not uncommon in residential homes, experts say.

“A sudden ground collapse could stem from abandoned cesspools and septic tanks,

wells, leaking water or sewer lines, and bad soil conditions,” Blaine Rogers, an attorney and partner at the law firm Davis Levin Livingston, told Moneywise.

Typical warning signs include “unexplained depressions or cracks in the foundation, pooling or draining water differently than usual, leaning structures and oddly soft ground,” Rogers noted.

Insurance-wise, a standard homeowners policy (about $2,872 a year in the U.S., depending on the state) is built around a list of exclusions, and earth movement is almost always on it.

“Sinkholes and ground collapse usually fall inside that exclusion, so damage to the house or the yard from a collapse is often not covered unless the homeowner added a sinkhole or earth movement endorsement,” Joshua Lavine, CEO at Maryland-based Capitol Benefits, LLC, told Moneywise. “Some carriers offer one, and a few states require that it be offered, so it is worth asking about before anything happens.”

Sinkholes also bring unique issues to the insurance coverage table.

“Old cesspools and wells create a problem because the policy may also exclude damage tied to structures nobody knew were there,” Lavine noted.

Injuries are a different story, as the liability section of a homeowners policy responds when a guest is hurt on the property, and that section does not carry the same earth movement exclusion. “In a case like this one, a homeowner would likely find little help for the hole itself but real protection if a visitor was injured,” Lavine added. “The homeowner’s own injuries are not covered by their liability coverage, which is where health and disability coverage come in.”

If the property owner or guest is injured in a sinkhole accident

When a homeowner, family member or guest is injured after falling into a hole caused by an old well, cesspool or other structure, the homeowner could face legal and financial risk.

“Ultimately, homeowners are responsible for their property, but that doesn’t always mean they are the only responsible party,” Jennifer Taylor, founder and CEO of Claim Ready, an insurance technology platform, told Moneywise. “If there was a known issue with the property that wasn’t properly disclosed during the sale, for example, there could be some responsibility elsewhere.”