This is what Baltimore's block-long street collapse looks like, in context

This is what Baltimore&#039;s block-long street collapse looks like, in context

(Image credit: Twitter)

last updated 8 January 2015

Wednesday afternoon, a city block in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood collapsed, apparently under the weight of 24 hours of heavy rains. Nobody was injured, but several cars slid down onto train tracks that run along and below East 26th Street. The photos are pretty dramatic:

And here's some aerial footage from BBC News (for a more extended news segment, watch this clip from local CBS affiliate WJZ 13):

The street collapse was described as a sinkhole by several news outlets (especially in Britain), but it was more of a landslide. It's a little hard to tell what you're looking at in the photos above, so here is what E. 26th St. at St. Paul looked like before 3:45 p.m. on April 30, according to Google Maps:

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The damage is pretty bad. Baltimore is lucky it wasn't worse.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.