'perfect' Sinkhole Forms During Guatemala Storms

[Waqas 48]

A cavernous and almost perfectly round sinkhole swallowed an entire intersection in Guatemala City during a tropical storm.

The hole is 66 feet across and plunges nearly 100 feet down.

"I can tell you what it's not: It's not a geological fault, and it's not the product of an earthquake," said David Monterroso, a geophysics engineer at the National Disaster Management Agency. "That's all we know. We're going to have to descend."

The sinkhole formed Saturday and gulped down a clothing factory about three miles from the site of a similar sinkhole three years ago.

"The boys were lucky," resident Honora Oliva said. "They left at six that afternoon, an hour before the earth opened up."

Neighbours said a weekend security guard also was spared because he had left to tend to his house, which flooded from heavy rain as Tropical Storm Agatha bore down on Central America. The storm has killed at least 179 people.

Some neighbours believe one or two people might have disappeared, but authorities said no deaths had been reported.

Crews were waiting for blueprints of the city's drainage system before investigating further.

The 2007 sinkhole killed three people and swallowed several homes in the same area. It was blamed on rain and an underground sewage flow, but it is too early to say whether those problems are to blame this time, said Monterroso, who also investigated the previous incident.

Police and soldiers stood guard around the sinkhole to prevent the curious from getting too close. Most people living nearby have moved out, fearful the hole will expand and swallow more homes.

"We're not going to wait," said one man who declined to give his name. "We've already rented elsewhere and we're leaving now."

[Wise_Guy 44]

[Ramz 8]

oh GOD

[Rabeel 1]

.

[imi.munib 0]

Fake..

[Waqas 48]

LOL, imi this is not fake, search for "Guatemala Storms" in news

[Rainbow 333]

well very gud post .......

i believe in this as u knw its kind of natural

aur ab aaye din climate change sei yeh sab hota rehta hai

jaisa k iceland mein volcano yakeen nahin ata but its there on top rock hard ice & underneath its just lava waiting to come out

Edited June 18, 2010 by Laraib