As if San Francisco couldn’t get more dystopian, a giant sinkhole opened up in the middle of an intersection on Monday.
The massive infrastructural collapse was caused by a 16-inch water main burst on Sunday, which formed the massive sinkhole in just 24 hours (literally the most insane feat of natural science I’ve seen in a hot minute), according to ABC7. The initial break also forced another 8-inch main to burst.
Both mains were fixed by 9:40pm, but there’s no updates on when the actual street will be fixed. Videos and images shared online suggest it’ll probably take a while, given the extent of the damage.
Fillmore & Green Sts in San Francisco has a sinkhole caused by a broken 16” water pipe. And it’s right near a gas line. @nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/AzDkzNWNZz
— TerryMcSweeney (@TerryMcSweeney) September 12, 2023
“Water was kind of like a river gushing and you could see it was coming down the street,” one local told the outlet. Another said, “It does feel like the city is getting pretty old,” which made me laugh out loud.
Massive sinkhole at Green & Fillmore in Pacific Heights, San Francisco @KPIXtv
🎥 stevieboymuziq / IG pic.twitter.com/HoNTeeQX9Q
— Betty Yu (@bett_yu) September 11, 2023
If all it takes is one water main to burst and 24 hours to pass, imagine just how unstable your home is, or literally all man-made infrastructure. If we really do go into some kind of world war in the coming months or years, and our supply chain crashes, our cities will turn into real-life post-apocalyptic hellscapes even without being bombed or attacked by our enemies. Our crappy infrastructure will do all the work for them. (RELATED: ‘So I Went Out With A Baseball Bat’: Residents Describe Dealing With Rampant Theft In San Francisco)
And I want to stress, this is not the fault of the engineers or workmen who give up hours, days away from their families to fix our infrastructure. This is the fault of city managers and lawmakers who don’t invest in things that really matter.