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 That's the case in Galena, where hundreds of now-abandoned lead and zinc mines dug underneath the small town by prospectors in the late 19th century are threatening to swallow much of the aging brick downtown area, including banks, offices, stores, houses, even City Hall.
The sedimentary rock that forms the ceilings of the old mine tunnels is falling into the empty spaces underground, one layer at a time. With each fallen layer, the tunnel moves closer to the surface.
"It's a very slow, creeping catastrophe that's happening," Mayor Dale Oglesby said.
Now the town of about 3,000 is embarking on a multimillion-dollar effort to find and fill in the web of mines underneath 60 percent of the town.
Galena, named for lead ore, was born as a mining town and incorporated in 1877. An 1890s photo shows a bustling Main Street, the sidewalks packed with people, the street full of horse-drawn buggies.
Now, the six or so blocks of Main Street are quiet. Two-story brick buildings house law offices, sandwich shops and flea markets, with occasional vacant storefronts and empty lots.
The city wants to revitalize downtown by making a tourist attraction out of the stretch of old Route 66 that runs through Galena. But Galena officials fear the risk of a building collapse could chase off investors.
"Because it is slow, we have time to do something about it. If we don't act, once you get past that point of no return, it can happen fast," the mayor said.
As he made that statement, Oglesby was standing next to a fearsome example of what may await Galena: Nearby were the crumbling remains of a brick building that was the town's only bar until a mine collapsed behind it last summer.
The front of the two-story building that had housed the Green Parrot bar since 1942 looked intact from Main Street. But the back part of the building sagged into a sunken backyard.
Galena officials can recount story after story of collapsed mines, like the time the ground opened up under the police impound yard and swallowed up two or three cars. But the Green Parrot was the first loss of a structure.
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 Town leaders were so alarmed they quickly formed a task force that led to the plan to fill the manmade caverns.
"It's time. This could save my business and let the old downtown develop," said Robert Edge, who owns a knife business across the street from the Green Parrot.
Starting in September, Galena will spend $500,000 in federal, state and local funds to drill up to 300 holes. The results will be used to update mining maps from the 1930s and establish which mines are getting dangerously close to caving in.
Then the town will start on a multiyear program of filling mines under buildings with a cement-like mix of fly ash and water. Mines closer than 25 feet to the surface will be the top priority.
Money has been secured for only the initial phase so far. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has estimated it could take 20 years and more than $60 million to fill all the mines.
Oglesby said that figure is too high, though he does not have an estimate of his own. He said the state estimate includes larger, more professional mines as deep as 150 feet that will not be a target of the city's program because they are more stable.
The mines threatening the city are small and relatively shallow, created by individual prospectors who dug shafts as deep as 60 feet and then tunneled sideways as far as they could, sometimes just 25 feet.
The mayor recalled one photo from the 1890s of a miner driving a shaft on a vacant lot next to a downtown bank.
"People back then weren't thinking 100 years in advance," Oglesby said.
[Associated Press; by Marcus Kabel]
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