LAFAYETTE — It could take months for crews to repair a sinkhole that opened above an old mine shaft on East Cleveland Street early Monday morning, nearly swallowing a SUV whole.

The sinkhole opened in the pre-dawn hours on East Cleveland between between Foote and Burlington avenues, above what used to be the main shaft of the Simpson coal mine — leaving a 15-foot-deep hole filled with water and debris in the middle of the street.

A car and its driver were perilously close to also ending up at the bottom of the sinkhole. The man told police he was driving through what he thought was a pothole at 5 a.m. Monday when he felt the asphalt suddenly "collapse around him," according to Debbie Wilmot, a spokeswoman with the city of Lafayette.

A SUV teeters on the edge of a sinkhole that opened above an old mine shaft under East Cleveland Street between Foote and Burlington avenues in Lafayette
A SUV teeters on the edge of a sinkhole that opened above an old mine shaft under East Cleveland Street between Foote and Burlington avenues in Lafayette on Monday. (Courtesy Coyocihault Carbone)

Police responded to the scene and stabilized the vehicle long enough for the driver to get out without any injury. The SUV was then towed from its precarious perch.

Don Kinney lives just yards from the hole and said he was awakened by a loud "thump."

"I came out to look at it and thought I was dreaming," Kinney said of the gaping hole in the street. "I've lived here 30 years and it's the first time I've seen this."

Wilmot said the sinkhole opened up over the main shaft of the old Simpson mine, which was shut down 88 years ago. She said the shaft had been filled in, but it appears recent rains had caused the fill to erode away.

"The combination of weather and conditions were just right for it to happen at this point," Wilmot said. "It was not any one overarching event that caused it."

Crews said no gas or water lines were damaged when the sinkhole opened.