A camera has been lowered into the massive hole that claimed the life of Jeff Bush on February 28. Bush is presumed dead and authorities believe his body fell so deeply into the earth that they may never recover it.

The video shows the depth of the sinkhole in the middle of the room with only the edges of the floor visible. The video was taken by a contractor who placed a camera on the end of a pole and stuck it through a window in the home before the hole was filled and the home was demolished.

[worldnow id=8734794 width=385 height=288 type=video]

Several generations of family members lived in the home in Seffner, a suburb of 8,000 people 15 miles east of Tampa, at the time of the ground collapse.

Jeremy Bush tried to save his brother by jumping into the sinking dirt hole. He had to be pulled out of the still-shifting hole by a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy, who was visibly shaken when talking about the incident more than a day later.

“I’ve never seen anything move so fast and do so much destruction,” Deputy Douglas Duvall said.

Five others in the house at the time escape unharmed as the earth crumbled.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the investigation. Detective Larry McKinnon said the sheriff’s office and the county medical examiner cannot declare Bush dead if his body is still missing. Under Florida law, Bush’s family must petition a court to declare him deceased.

“Based on the circumstances, he’s presumed dead; however the official death certificate can only be issued by a judge and the family has to petition the court,” McKinnon said.

The area around Seffner is known for sinkholes due to the geography of the terrain, but they are rarely deadly. No one — from longtime public safety officials to geologists — could remember an incident where a person was sucked into the earth without warning.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

2nd Sinkhole Opens In Florida Near Area Where Man Was Swallowed By Earth

SEFFNER, Fla. -

” A second sinkhole has opened in a Seffner neighborhood, just two miles from where another sinkhole swallowed a man in his bedroom last week.

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and code enforcement officials were called to a home on Cedar Tree Lane to determine if it’s safe for the family to stay in the house. “

Related articles

• 2nd sinkhole forms in Seffner area (abcactionnews.com)
• Crews to raze Fla. home over sinkhole; man missing (news.yahoo.com)
• Demolition Sunday for sinkhole house near Tampa (jacksonville.com)
• Report: 2nd possible sinkhole opens up in Seffner (clickorlando.com)

—–

• Demolition continues at scene of missing Florida sinkhole victim (news.yahoo.com)

On Sunday, they brought down more than half the home, managing to salvage some keepsakes for family members who lived there.

The opening of the sinkhole had been covered by the home, but now emergency officials and engineers can now see inside it more clearly, and begin planning how to deal with it. They also need to decide what will happen to the two homes on either side of the now-demolished house. Experts say the sinkhole has “compromised” those homes, but it’s unclear whether steps can be taken to save them.

[worldnow id=8545718 width=385 height=288 type=video]

Jeremy Bush, 35, tried to save his brother, Jeff, when the earth opened up and swallowed him Thursday night.

On Sunday morning, Bush and relatives prayed with a pastor as the home — where he lived with his girlfriend, Rachel Wicker; their daughter, Hannah, 2; and others — was demolished and waited for firefighters to salvage anything possible from inside. The home was owned by Leland Wicker, Rachel’s grandfather, since the 1970s.

The operator of the heavy equipment worked gingerly, first taking off a front wall. Family belongings were scooped onto the lawn gently in hopes of salvaging parts of the family’s 40-year history in the home.

As of Sunday afternoon — when demolition had stopped for the day and only a few walls remained — a Bible, family photos, a jewelry box and a pink teddy bear for Hannah were among the items saved. Firefighters also were able to pick out the purse of one of the women in the home.

Cheers went up from family, friends and neighbors each time something valuable was salvaged.

Wanda Carter, the daughter of Leland Wicker, cradled the large family Bible in her arms. She said her mother and father had stored baptism certificates, cards and photos between the pages of that Bible over the years.

“It means that God is still in control, and He knew we needed this for closure,” she said, crying.

Carter said she spent from age 11 to 20 in the home, and she had to close her eyes as the home was knocked down.

“Thank you for all of the memories and life it gave us,” she said.

The Rev. John Martin Bell of Shoals Baptist Church said he had been with the family all morning. “We just prayed with them,” he said. He added that all five who lived in the house — Bush, Wicker, Hannah and two others ages 50 and 45 — were in need of support and prayers from the community.

Several generations of family members lived in the home at the time of the ground collapse, including Jeff Bush, the man now presumed dead.

Jeremy Bush tried to save his brother by jumping into the sinking dirt hole. He had to be pulled out of the still-shifting hole by a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy, who was visibly shaken when talking about the incident more than a day later.

“I’ve never seen anything move so fast and do so much destruction,” Deputy Douglas Duvall said.

The search for Jeff Bush, 37, was called off Saturday. He was in his bedroom Thursday night in Seffner — a suburb of 8,000 people 15 miles east of downtown Tampa — when the ground opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five others in the house at the time escape unharmed as the earth crumbled.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the investigation. Detective Larry McKinnon said the sheriff’s office and the county medical examiner cannot declare Bush dead if his body is still missing. Under Florida law, Bush’s family must petition a court to declare him deceased.

“Based on the circumstances, he’s presumed dead; however the official death certificate can only be issued by a judge and the family has to petition the court,” McKinnon said.

The area around Seffner is known for sinkholes due to the geography of the terrain, but they are rarely deadly. No one — from longtime public safety officials to geologists — could remember an incident where a person was sucked into the earth without warning.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Zephyrhills water, Culligan Water, Water Shop, Arctic Springs, Gulf Coast Culligans, Everlasting Water, Ultra Pure, Culligan Water Conditioning, Crystal Springs Water

72 listings of Golf Courses in Brandon

I did not check on how many soda and beer companies are in the area?

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/man-swallowed-sinkhole-opened-under-bedroom/nWdTT/

What about Sinkholes in your state or country?

Crews on Sunday razed more than half the home, managing to salvage some keepsakes for family members who lived there.

The opening of the sinkhole has been covered by the home, but once emergency officials and engineers can see inside it more clearly, they could begin planning how to deal with it. They also need to decide what will happen to the two homes on either side of the now-demolished house. Experts say the sinkhole has “compromised” those homes, but it’s unclear whether steps can be taken to save them.

Jeremy Bush, 35, tried to save his brother, Jeff, when the earth opened up and swallowed him Thursday night.

On Sunday morning, Bush and relatives prayed with a pastor as the home — where he lived with his girlfriend, Rachel Wicker; their daughter, Hannah, 2; and others — was demolished and waited for firefighters to salvage anything possible from inside. The home was owned by Leland Wicker, Rachel’s grandfather, since the 1970s.

The operator of the heavy equipment worked gingerly, first taking off a front wall. Family belongings were scooped onto the lawn gently in hopes of salvaging parts of the family’s 40-year history in the home.

As of Sunday afternoon — when demolition had stopped for the day and only a few walls remained — a Bible, family photos, a jewelry box and a pink teddy bear for Hannah were among the items saved. Firefighters also were able to pick out the purse of one of the women in the home.

Cheers went up from family, friends and neighbors each time something valuable was salvaged.

Wanda Carter, the daughter of Leland Wicker, cradled the large family Bible in her arms. She said her mother and father had stored baptism certificates, cards and photos between the pages of that Bible over the years.

“It means that God is still in control, and He knew we needed this for closure,” she said, crying.

Carter said she spent from age 11 to 20 in the home, and she had to close her eyes as the home was knocked down.

“Thank you for all of the memories and life it gave us,” she said.

The Rev. John Martin Bell of Shoals Baptist Church said he had been with the family all morning. “We just prayed with them,” he said. He added that all five who lived in the house — Bush, Wicker, Hannah and two others ages 50 and 45 — were in need of support and prayers from the community.

Several generations of family members lived in the home at the time of the ground collapse, including Jeff Bush, the man now presumed dead.

Jeremy Bush tried to save his brother by jumping into the sinking dirt hole. He had to be pulled out of the still-shifting hole by a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy, who was visibly shaken when talking about the incident more than a day later.

“I’ve never seen anything move so fast and do so much destruction,” Deputy Douglas Duvall said.

The search for Jeff Bush, 37, was called off Saturday. He was in his bedroom Thursday night in Seffner — a suburb of 8,000 people 15 miles east of downtown Tampa — when the ground opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five others in the house at the time escape unharmed as the earth crumbled.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the investigation. Detective Larry McKinnon said the sheriff’s office and the county medical examiner cannot declare Bush dead if his body is still missing. Under Florida law, Bush’s family must petition a court to declare him deceased.

“Based on the circumstances, he’s presumed dead; however the official death certificate can only be issued by a judge and the family has to petition the court,” McKinnon said.

The area around Seffner is known for sinkholes due to the geography of the terrain, but they are rarely deadly. No one — from longtime public safety officials to geologists — could remember an incident where a person was sucked into the earth without warning.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Odd News Headlines – Yahoo! News

The search for Jeff Bush, 37, was called off Saturday. Rescuers said there were no signs of life since the hole opened Thursday night.

“With all the equipment we brought in and specialized help we just have not been able to locate Mr. Bush,” said Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill.

[worldnow id=8544358 width=385 height=288 type=video]

Jeremy Bush, who tried to save his brother, knelt in prayer outside the house Sunday morning before the demolition began.

“It is going to bother me for the rest of my life probably,” said Bush. “I’m going to have trouble because I was in the hole trying to rescue him.”

Merrill said said the crews’ goal for Sunday was to knock down the house and on Monday they would clear the debris as much as possible to allow officials and engineers to see the 30 foot wide, 60 foot deep sinkhole in the open.

“It needs to be done from outside the perimeter with huge equipment that will be able to reach in and bring out whatever we can of the house,” said Merrill.

Demolition paused Sunday morning as firefighters just outside the home went through belongings found inside, putting items such as books, binders and what looked like photo albums into boxes. They brought them to the Bush family.

The Rev. John Martin Bell of Shoals Baptist Church said he had been with the Bush family all morning.

“We just prayed with them,” he said, adding that the family hopes to salvage keepsakes such as photographs.

Bell said the five other people who lived in the house – Jeremy Bush, 35; his girlfriend, Rachel Wicker, 27; their daughter, Hannah, 2; and two others ages 50 and 45 — were in need of support and prayers from the community.

Jeff Bush was in his bedroom Thursday night when the ground opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five others in the house escape unharmed as the earth crumbled.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the investigation. Detective Larry McKinnon said that sheriff’s office and the county medical examiner cannot declare Bush dead if his body is still missing. Under Florida law, Bush’s family must petition a court to declare him deceased.

“Based on the circumstances, he’s presumed dead, however the official death certificate can only be issued by a judge and the family has to petition the court,” McKinnon said.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report

Jeremy Bush, 35, tried to save his brother, Jeff, when the earth opened up and swallowed him Thursday night. On Sunday morning, Bush and relatives prayed with a pastor as the home – where he lived with his girlfriend, Rachel Wicker; their daughter, Hannah, 2; and others – was demolished and waited for firefighters to salvage anything possible from inside.

Early Sunday morning, just before the demolition began, Bush and an unidentified woman knelt and prayed at the mailbox in front of the home, owned by Leland Wicker, Rachel’s grandfather, since the 1970s.

Jeremy Bush/Handout/The Associated Press

After praying, Bush and the woman walked across the street to a neighbor’s lawn to watch the demolition.

The operator of the heavy equipment worked gingerly, first taking off a front wall. Family belongings were scooped onto the lawn gently in hopes of salvaging parts of the family’s 40-year history in the home.

As of Sunday afternoon – when demolition had stopped for the day and only a few walls of the home remained – a Bible, family photos, a jewelry box and a pink teddy bear for Hannah were among the items saved. Firefighters also were able to pick out the purse of one of the women in the home.

Cheers went up from family, friends and neighbors each time something valuable was salvaged.

Wanda Carter, the daughter of Leland Wicker, cradled the large family Bible in her arms. She said her mother and father had stored baptism certificates, cards and photos between the pages of that Bible over the years.

“It means that God is still in control, and He knew we needed this for closure,” she said, crying.

Carter said she spent from age 11 to 20 in the home, and she had to close her eyes as the home was knocked down.

“Thank you for all of the memories and life it gave us,” she said.

The Rev. John Martin Bell of Shoals Baptist Church said he had been with the family all morning. “We just prayed with them,” he said. He added that all five who lived in the house – Bush, Wicker, Hannah and two others ages 50 and 45 – were in need of support and prayers from the community.

AP Photo/Chris O’Meara

Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said the remaining walls of the home would be knocked down Monday and then crews would turn to clearing the debris as much as possible to allow officials and engineers to see the sinkhole in the open. Officials also will determine what will happen to the two homes on either side of the now-demolished house; experts say the sinkhole has “compromised” those homes, but it’s unclear whether steps can be taken to save them.

Several generations of family members lived in the home at the time of the ground collapse, including Jeff Bush, the man now presumed dead.

Jeremy Bush tried to save his brother by jumping into the sinking dirt hole. He had to be pulled out of the still-shifting hole by a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Deputy, who was visibly shaken when talking about the incident more than a day later.

Chris O’Meara / The Associated Press

“I’ve never seen anything move so fast and do so much destruction,” Deputy Douglas Duvall said.

The search for Jeff Bush, 37, was called off Saturday. He was in his bedroom Thursday night in Seffner – a suburb of 8,000 people 15 miles east of downtown Tampa – when the ground opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five others in the house at the time escape unharmed as the earth crumbled.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the investigation. Detective Larry McKinnon said the sheriff’s office and the county medical examiner cannot declare Bush dead if his body is still missing. Under Florida law, Bush’s family must petition a court to declare him deceased.

“Based on the circumstances, he’s presumed dead; however the official death certificate can only be issued by a judge and the family has to petition the court,” McKinnon said.

The area around Seffner is known for sinkholes due to the geography of the terrain, but they are rarely deadly. No one – from longtime public safety officials to geologists – could remember an incident where a person was sucked into the earth without warning.

AP Photo/Chris O’Meara

Odd News Headlines – Yahoo! News

The 20-foot-wide opening of the sinkhole is almost completely covered by the house and rescuers feared it would collapse on them if they tried to search for Jeff Bush, 37. Crews were testing the unstable ground surrounding the home and evacuated two neighboring homes as a precaution.

Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said heavy equipment would be brought in to begin the demolition Sunday morning.

“At this point it’s really not possible to recover the body,” Merrill said, later adding “we’re dealing with a very unusual sinkhole.”

Jessica Damico, spokeswoman for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, said the demolition equipment would be placed on what they believe is solid ground and reach onto the property to pull apart the house. The crew will try pulling part of the house away from the sinkhole intact so some heirlooms and mementoes can be retrieved.

Bush was in his bedroom Thursday night in Seffner — a suburb of 8,000 people 15 miles east of downtown Tampa — when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five others in the house escape unharmed.

On Saturday, the normally quiet neighborhood of concrete block homes painted in Florida pastels was jammed with cars as engineers, reporters, and curious onlookers came to the scene.

At the home next door to the Bushes, a family cried and organized boxes. Testing determined that their house and another was compromised by the sinkhole. The families were allowed to go inside for about a half-hour to gather belongings.

Sisters Soliris and Elbairis Gonzalez, who live on the same street as Bushes, said neighbors were worried for their safety.

“I’ve had nightmares,” Soliris Gonzalez, 31, said. “In my dreams, I keep checking for cracks in the house.”

They said the family has discussed where to go if forced to evacuate, and they’ve taken their important documents to a storage unit.

“The rest of it, this is material stuff, as long as our family is fine,” Soliris Gonzalez said.

“You never know underneath the ground what’s happening,” added Elbairis Gonzalez, 30.

Experts say thousands of sinkholes form yearly in Florida because of the state’s unique geography, though most are small and deaths rarely occur.

“There’s hardly a place in Florida that’s immune to sinkholes,” said Sandy Nettles, who owns a geology consulting company in the Tampa area. “There’s no way of ever predicting where a sinkhole is going to occur.”

Most sinkholes are small, like one found Saturday morning in Largo, 35 miles away from Seffner. The Largo sinkhole, about 10 feet long and several feet wide, is in a mall parking lot.

The state sits on limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water, with a layer of clay on top. The clay is thicker in some locations — including the area where Bush became a victim — making them even more prone to sinkholes.

Jonathan Arthur, the state geologist and director of the Florida Geological Survey, said other states sit atop limestone in a similar way, but Florida has additional factors like extreme weather, development, aquifer pumping and construction. “The conditions under which a sinkhole will form can be very rapid, or they can form slowly over time,” he said.

But it remained unclear Saturday what, if anything, caused the Seffner sinkhole.

“The condition that caused that sinkhole could have started a million years ago,” Nettles said.

Jeremy Bush, who tried to rescue his brother, lay flowers and a stuffed lamb near the house Saturday morning and wept.

He said someone came to his home a couple of months ago to check for sinkholes and other issues, apparently for insurance purposes, but found nothing wrong. State law requires home insurers to provide coverage against sinkholes.

“And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole,” Bush said Friday.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Engineers were hard at work Saturday morning, finding out more about the sinkhole, believing the entire house could eventually succumb to the unstable ground.

(Please click here for the photos)

Reuters reported that Jeff Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the sinkhole suddenly swallowed him and the entire bedroom into the ground.

The sinkhole was estimated 20 feet across and 20 feet deep.

It caused the home’s concrete floor to cave in around 11 p.m. Thursday.

Fortunately five other people in the house were unharmed.

Bush’s brother Jeremy Bush jumped into the hole and tried to dig to find his brother but he could not find him.

He was rescued by Douglas Duvall of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office who pulled him out from the sinkhole.

The sinkhole is slowly growing and it was feared that the entire house could eventually falls into the unstable ground.

Engineers said the house may have to be demolished, even though from the outside the house seems to be alright.

They took soil samples and ran various tests and found that the entire lot was dangerous.

Reuters reported that,”Authorities had not detected any signs of life after lowering listening devices and cameras into the hole and rescue efforts were suspended after the site was deemed too unsafe for emergency personnel to enter”.

Two adjacent houses were evacuated and officials were considering further evacuations.

“This is not your typical sinkhole,” said Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill.

Florida is highly prone to sinkholes because there are caverns below ground of limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water.

This is a disaster.

But when it happens away from buildings and roads, it could turn out to be nice and beautiful places after a long time; please click here for ‘Photos: Amazing Sinkholes Around The World’.

t’s about 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep, but it’s growing slowly and expected to collapse even more. “This is not your typical sinkhole,” says one Tampa-area official. “This is a chasm. For that reason, we’re being very deliberate.”

FILE – This undated photo provided by Jeremy Bush shows Jeff Bush. Jeremy Bush heard a loud crash and screaming coming from his brother’s room early Thursday, March 1, 2013 in Seffner, Fla. A large sinkhole opened under Jeff’s bedroom and he disappeared together with most of the bedroom furniture. Jeremy jumped into the hole and was quickly up to his neck in dirt. Jeff is presumed dead. (AP Photo/Jeremy Bush, HO)

A man feared dead after he was swallowed by a sinkhole in his suburban Tampa home in Seffner, Florida.

Reuters reported that Jeff Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the sinkhole suddenly swallowed him and the entire bedroom into the ground.

The sinkhole was estimated 20 feet across and 20 feet deep.

It caused the home’s concrete floor to cave in around 11 p.m. Thursday.

Fortunately five other people in the house were unharmed.

Bush’s brother Jeremy Bush jumped into the hole and tried to dig to find his brother but he could not find him.

He was rescued by Douglas Duvall of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office who pulled him out from the sinkhole.

The sinkhole is slowly growing and it was feared that the entire house could eventually falls into the unstable ground.

Engineers said the house may have to be demolished, even though from the outside the house seems to be alright.

They took soil samples and ran various tests and found that the entire lot was dangerous.

Reuters reported that,”Authorities had not detected any signs of life after lowering listening devices and cameras into the hole and rescue efforts were suspended after the site was deemed too unsafe for emergency personnel to enter”.

Two adjacent houses were evacuated and officials were considering further evacuations.

“This is not your typical sinkhole,” said Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill.

Florida is highly prone to sinkholes because there are caverns below ground of limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water.

This is a disaster.

But when it happens away from buildings and roads, it could turn out to be nice and beautiful places after a long time; please click here for ‘Photos: Amazing Sinkholes Around The World’.

(Please click the photos for larger images)

Officials lowered equipment into the sinkhole but didn’t see any sign of life. Jeremy Bush, who was at the home near Tampa, said it took him only seconds to get to his brother’s room about 11 p.m. Thursday. He jumped into the hole and dirt was quickly up to his neck.

“The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn’t care. I wanted to save my brother,” he said. “But I just couldn’t do nothing.”

Jeremy Bush had to be helped out of the sinkhole by a Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputy. Bush stood in a neighbor’s yard across the street from the house Friday and recounted the harrowing collapse.

[worldnow id=8536511 width=385 height=288 type=video]

“He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him,” he said of his brother.

Engineers worked to determine the size of the sinkhole. At the surface, officials estimated it was about 30 feet across. Below the surface, officials believed it was 100 feet wide.

From the outside of the small, sky blue house, nothing appeared wrong. There wear no cracks and the only sign something was amiss was the yellow caution tape circling the house.

Jeremy Bush’s wife and his 2-year-old daughter were also inside the house. “She keeps asking where her Uncle Jeff is,” he said. “I lost everything. I work so hard to support my wife and kid and I lost everything.”

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Deputy Douglas Duvall said he helped Jeremy Bush as the bedroom was still collapsing.

“I reached down and was able to actually able to get him by his hand and pull him out of the hole. The hole was collapsing. At that time, we left the house,” Duvall said.

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said when Duvall arrived, there was nothing left of the bedroom.

“There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up,” she said.

“We put engineering equipment into the sinkhole and didn’t see anything compatible with life,” Damico said. “The entire house is on the sinkhole.”

Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry McKinnon said authorities asked sinkhole and engineering experts, and they were using equipment to see if the ground can support the weight of heavy machinery needed for the recovery effort.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

If you are a David Crowder*Band fan, you’ll appreciate this. This is 4/6 of the David Crowder*Band. Jeremy Bush(BWack)(drums, programming), Jack Parker (guitar), Mike Dodson(MikeD)(bass, keys, lead vox, programming), and Mark Waldrop(guitar). Together, they make The Digital Age.

Now, I warn you that you must remember this is not the David Crowder*Band. When I first watched this video, I was expecting something similar (which it sort of is). The biggest obvious thing that is missing is Crowder’s voice. However, MikeD does a great job at taking that role.

Watch and enjoy.

The first link was sent to me by a friend at work. It shows several HUBO humanoid robots playing The Beatles’ song Come Together as a band. This video was student produced by the Drexel University’s Music & Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab). The second video shows a solenoid powered, MIDI drumming robot named Steve 3p0, which was created by David Crowder Band’s drummer, Jeremy Bush (B-Wack).

A robot playing an instrument is pretty cool, but it’s the time and effort spent actually building the instruments and programming the robots that impresses me!

Never saw that one coming tonight.

Because none of you are coming into this post, via that title and the opening two lines, knowing its context or inspiration, let me explain.

There is a band I am quite fond of.  David Crowder*Band to be precise.  They are not only a band I like because of their music.  They are not only a band that I like because of their lyrics.  They are not only a band who, in the fall of last year, I had the honour and pleasure of shouting out songs to Jesus with at the front and middle of a crowd in a church in Toronto, giving me the utmost joy and pleasure to sing shout some of those specific songs specifically along with my heroes who wrote them.  Almost nothing is more gratifying to a fan of ANY band then to get to shout along to said band’s songs when they’re five feet from your face.

They are a band who, with and through their album ‘A Collision or (3+4=7)’ alone as the de facto textbook, taught me how to beautifully, brilliantly and perfectly intersect my faith in Christ with my talent and giftings in music while still being able to treat music as a legitimate artform instead of having to figuratively ‘dumb down’ my art because of my faith.  They wrote a concept album about the Christian response to death that would forever change my life and be the answer to my below questions.

Faith and Art?

Art and Faith?

What a brilliantly beautiful collision.

So timely was that album that after its writing, during its following support tour while the band was in Orlando, they received that their friend and pastor at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, Kyle Lake, who was absolutely instrumental in the writing and construction of that record, died during a baptism service adjusting a microphone.

As I wrote that previous sentence, while listening through that album as my soundtrack to writing this post, it was playing over the exact length of the song Come Awake from that album, whose lyrics read as follows:

Are we left here on our own?
Can you feel when your last breath is gone?
Night is weighing heavy now
Be quiet and wait for a voice that will say

Come awake
From sleep, arise
You were dead
You’ve come alive
Wake up wake up
Open your eyes
Climb from your grave
Into the light
Bring us back to life

You are not the only one
Who feels like the only one
Night soon will be lifted friend
Just be quiet and wait for the voice that will say

Come awake
From sleep, arise
You were dead
You’ve come alive
Wake up wake up
Open your eyes
Climb from your grave
Into the light
Bring us back to life

Rise, rise, rise, rise, rise

Rise, rise, rise, rise….
Shine, shine, Oh shine
We will shine
We will rise
We will shine, shine, shine

Fitting, isn’t it?

If you happen to be reading this and have not yet figured out the context of this post, just before I began writing it, I found a rumour.  From a comment on that rumour, I found a link.  Following that link, I found the entry page to the David Crowder*Band website, featuring a fairly lengthy post, written by the band, announcing that their coming fall tour with Gungor, John Mark McMillan, and Chris August to be their last.  After that, they will be figuratively dead as a band, but will come back as a phoenix from their temporary ashes into and unto larger projects and callings that the good Lord has for them, with their future parts being greater than their current sum.

Fittingly enough, the last album, the one they are currently working on, was originally going to be written to be a Mass, but, through these processes and inevitably the guiding and growth of the good Lord, it has evolved and grown, fittingly, into a Requiem.

I raise many glasses to those many men who have inspired and encouraged many more than they will ever know short of glory; to not only mourn the loss of their collective efforts, but to celebrate what the good Lord has accomplished through them and what He will continue to do through them until they get called Home.
Even though you will likely never read or much less see this post, I thank you with the deepest of gratitude for what you have done for Him, His Church, Faith, Art, Music, and how I somehow fit into this divine masterstroke we call life.

Thousands upon thousands upon legions of blessings, truly, for just trying to make us sing.

-Chris
SDG.

Just like a blind man, I wandered alone
Worries and fear, I claimed for my own
Then like a blind man who God gave back his sight
Praise the LORD! I saw the light!!

The catastrophic events that indelibly have shattered the lives of Bush and his family occurred on the night of February 28. The family had just retired to bed when a deafening noise startled them.

“Right when it happened, said Janell Wicker, “it sounded like someone had just rammed our house with their car going 100 miles an hour.”

Jeremy Bush heard his brother screaming for help and ran to his bedroom. Jeff and all the furnishing in the room were swallowed up by a massive sinkhole, approximately 20 feet wide and 50 feet deep.

“Everything was gone. My brother’s bed, my brother’s dresser, my brother’s TV. My brother was gone,” Bush told CNN’s AC360.”

Bush asked his father-in-law for a shovel, and began digging frantically in an attempt to get to his brother.

“The hole was over my head. I could hear him calling out to me,” Bush cried. “I couldn’t get him out. I tried so hard. I tried everything I could.”

Authorities have given up their rescue efforts and any hope that Jeff Bush is still alive. Demolition crews started destroying Bush’s home on Sunday, giving the family time to sift through the debris for their personal belongings.

The home was completely demolished on Monday, as officials try to determine what they are dealing with.

Hillsborough County is well known as sinkhole alley. According to one state official, sinkholes are created when acidic groundwater eats away at the bedrock made up of limestone and other carbonate rocks. This erosion form voids that ultimately collapses when the weight above can no longer support it.

The giant crater that suddenly caved in under the Jeff Bush’s bedroom floor, and the subsequent demolition of the edifice that housed over three generations has left Jeremy and his entire family despondent and looking for a sense of closure.

A clawed bible, a child’s teddy bear, and the excruciating memory of his brother crying out for help as he dug in vain to save him, are the only things that Jeremy Bush has left.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author