Story perspectives
Tragic Tunnel Collapse Claims Lives of Two Best Friends
1/14/2026
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Story summary
- Two families mourn the deaths of 14-year-old best friends George Watts and Derrick Hubbard after a tunnel collapsed at Sportsman Park in Florida.
- The boys were digging a tunnel in sugar sand when the collapse occurred.
- Derrick Hubbard was pronounced dead at the scene.
- George Watts was hospitalized.
- Inverness Middle School provided crisis support for students and families.
