guardian.co.uk,
James Meikle, Thursday 21 July 2011
 |
| A man inspects the sinkhole in Guatemala City. Photograph: Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images |
You may
sometimes wish the ground would swallow you up, but for some the danger of
disappearing down a deep hole is all too real.
The people
of Guatemala City are increasingly unable to trust what's beneath their feet
because of treacherous sinkholes.
The latest
person to get a shock was 65-year-old Inocenta Hernandez. "When we heard
the loud boom we thought a gas canister from a neighbouring home had exploded,
or there had been a crash on the street.
"We
rushed out to look and saw nothing. A gentleman told me that the noise came
from my house, and we searched until we found it under my bed."
A reporter
for AFP news agency who visited her home, estimated the hole, which appeared
late on Monday, was 12.2m (40ft) deep and 80cm (32inches) in diameter.
"Thank
God there are only material damages, because my grandchildren were running
around the house, into that room and out to the patio," said Hernandez.
Others have
not been so lucky. A giant sinkhole that formed nearby in 2007 was 150m deep
and swallowed several homes and a truck, killing three people. Local residents
were forced to evacuate for days.
A 2010
sinkhole also in the same area measuring 20m wide and about 30m deep swallowed
a three-story building and a nearby house.
Police,
members of the country's natural disaster office and water utility company
officials have all visited the scene of the latest hole.
Sinkholes,
formed by natural erosion, can be gradual but are often sudden. Guatemala City
is built on volcanic deposits and especially prone to sinkholes. They are often
blamed on leaky sewers or on heavy rain.
Related Article:
 |
A sinkhole that swallowed a three-storey building in Guatemala
City has been blamed on a combination of Tropical Storm Agatha and poor drainage systems (Photograph: Luis Echeverria/AP / 30 May 2010) |
Related Article:
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