Here’s the state of things at our house today after the demolition of the basement stair well that was necessitated by the findings yesterday. Well, imagine it with more water, as it’s been raining. 
The hole is actually pretty large and deep! They roped it off with caution tape and told us not to go near it. The soil in our yard is very sandy and it could collapse very easily if we got to close to the edge.
The guy that demolished it deserves some cookies or something for how carefully he took it apart. He saved the siding (so we can patch with it), plus windows, door ( just installed earlier in the year), etc. and battled the wasps that had made it their home.