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SUGAR CREEK, Mo. — It’s an unbelievable sight that some say they had to see to believe.

A true sinking feeling is happening in the parking lot of the Dollar Tree in Sugar Creek. There’s a sinkhole that’s so dangerous the store closed, and the parking lot is blocked.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Dominick Wade said. “I was with my sister, and she said, ‘You wanna see a sinkhole?’ So I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.'”

“Saw this on Facebook, and I had to see it,” Caitlyn Lacy said.

The store will be closed until experts can figure out how to get it back on solid ground.

“There’s places where the asphalt has sunken down a couple of feet,” Sugar Creek Mayor Mike Larson said. “There’s places where the ground has sunk down 8-10 feet. You can see a little underneath the building, but at the same time you don’t want to get too close because you don’t know how stable it is.”

The rainy forecast isn’t helping the situation.

Larson said it appears a sinkhole is causing the issue, and the problem started with the soil being too saturated.

“The engineers have been up there with the insurance companies, and they’re still looking for a cause,” Larson said. “Once the engineers know the cause, they’ll tell the insurance companies, and then we’ll go onto whatever the next step is after that.”

Larson said electricity, gas and power are all shut off to the building, so the city’s only concern right now with the property is the sinking asphalt. The mayor hopes it can be repaired.

“It would be nice to see it fixed,” Larson said. “It would be nice to see the employees and the managers back in there. It would be nice to see the revenue stream continue back because everybody loved the store.”

As the rain continues to fall a number of drains are catching the water to keep it away from the building. Larson said the sooner the company can get it fixed the sooner employees can get back to work.

“People use the store,” Larson said. “People like the store. People want it back open.”

Larson said while the soil is saturated there is currently no structural damage to the building itself.