BELLEVILLE, Ill. – About 330,000 Illinois homes sit on top of old abandoned mines. Some say their homes are sinking because of it.

Concerns are growing after a reported Pennsylvania sinkhole swallowed up a grandmother into an old mine shaft.

Belleville residents like Shanee Carpenter fear what’s happening under them.

Water pours from an unknown source through cavernous cracks in Carpenter’s basement. She’s lived in the home for decades without problems. Suddenly cracks started showing up this past year, making it look like her house is going to split in half.

“When I go down there to do laundry, I’m like, ‘Oh Lord, protect me, Lord,’” she told us.

You can see inch and a half gaps in spots—enough to stick your hand into. Daylight can be seen in some areas. It’s an easy entrance for creatures we saw entering her basement. You can feel where the ground is sloping—even where there’s no cracking. One of her back doors will no longer latch.

“It’s just a matter of time before my house, God forbid, that it caves in,” Carpenter said.

She’s one of about a dozen homeowners experiencing sudden foundation cracks near the site of the now-closed Ruler Foods grocery store on North Belt West.

The store closed after reports of possible mine subsidence there in September 2023.

Fire Chief Stepanie Mills told us back then, “We did evacuate three homes, but that was out of an abundance of caution.”

Belleville’s mayor says the grocery store remains closed with no official plans to reopen and that the utility construction work you see is related to mine subsidence. We could see Illinois American Water installing new water lines, which the company told us are more durable and can better withstand ground movement.

Illinois DNR is monitoring what’s happening in the area, according to the fire department. FOX 2 spoke to five other homeowners off camera, and only two of them described recent foundation cracking, but nothing like Carpenter’s.

“It’s hard to imagine that looking at your house gradually falling apart…and there’s nothing you could do,” Carpenter said.

She’s taken the right steps, like calling the Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund. During our interview, two inspectors were checking out how her damages have grown.

Carpenter said, “His opinion is that it’s safe to stay here.”

A spokesperson for the fund told us it can sometimes take years to track mine-related damages before there’s action.

You can find out if you are at risk in Illinois by checking this website.