SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Okeechobee County, FL: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock
100%
At or near the surface
38%
Buried under cover
62%

What to do about a house in Okeechobee County

Check the parcel against your state survey sinkhole map, and ask for an inspection if cracks, depressions or sticking doors show up.

Standard Florida homeowners policies cover only catastrophic ground cover collapse; full sinkhole coverage is a separately priced option insurers must offer.

That works out to roughly 769 of Okeechobee County's 769 square miles on soluble rock, 290 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 42,369 residents (55 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 579 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: what Florida insurers have to cover, and why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone.

Counties around Okeechobee County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is St. Lucie County, FL, about 27 miles east, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Shelly sediments of Plio-Pleistocene age (beach sand), Holocene in age, covering about 62% of the county. Next is the Shelly sediments of Plio-Pleistocene age at 38%.

The county also lies over the Floridan shelf, a deep salt or gypsum basin. Deep beds rarely cause surface collapse on their own, but wells and mining into them have.

Against the rest of Florida

Okeechobee County ranks 39 of 67 in Florida for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 83% of US counties on that measure.