“At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy. Our Lady of La Salette 19 Sept. 1846 (Published by Mélanie 1879)
2 Feb 2014 Ever had that sinking feeling when you open the front door in the morning and wonder where you left the car?
Did you leave it on the road, park it in the garage... or has somebody stolen it?
The last thing you'd probably think of is that it might have been swallowed up by the ground But that's exactly what happened to 19-year-old Zoe Smith, whose Volkswagen Lupo fell down a 30ft-deep sinkhole in the night.
Now the car, which she relies on to get to work, is a write-off, lying at the bottom of the pit, which stretches 15ft across the family's driveway – to within inches of the house itself.
Miss Smith's stepfather Phil Conran, said: 'We hadn't heard anything at all. There was no indication whatsoever 'At 7am my daughter went out the front door and instead of her car being there, there was a huge hole.
'I was gobsmacked. The first thing I did was phone the police because we didn't know what to do.
'We weren't absolutely sure the car was in there but it seemed too much of a coincidence for it not to be.'
Mr Conran, 59, an environmental consultant, said the police called firefighters to the house in Walters Ash, Buckinghamshire, to secure the area. Watch manager Stuart Grosse said: 'We get a few calls of this nature, mainly in the south of the county. Historically, holes have appeared in the area due to clay mining.'
Writing about mining in the area on a community website, a local historian explained: 'Earlier inhabitants of Naphill and Walters Ash made a living by digging on the Common and in the fields – digging for clay to make bricks, for chalk to make agricultural lime and for stone to shape as building and road making materials.
'The records show this going back from the 1950s to the early 1800s, and such activity may have started many years before that.'
It is thought the recent wet weather may have caused the hole to open up by eroding earth used to fill in the old pits.
Now local building inspectors are assessing whether the property is secure. Mr Conran hopes it will be because there was no structural damage to the property which he believes was built on a concrete raft to safeguard against sinkholes.
Mr Conran added: 'The real shock of all this is the horror of what might have been had Zoe gone out and been inside it when it sank. It overtakes all other concerns.
'All you can see is part of the side of the car and it's filled with mud.'
Daily Mail
MARIA OF THE CROSS,
Victim of Jesus nee MELANIE CALVAT,
Shepherdess of La Salette
"I protest highly against a different text, which people may dare publish after my death. I protest once more against the very false statements of all those who dare say and write First that I embroidered the Secret; second, against those who state that the Queen Mother did not say to transmit the Secret to all her people." Melanie
