300-Foot Sinkhole in Guatemala City
via CNN:
The death toll from Tropical Storm Agatha continued to grow Tuesday, with 152 reported killed in Guatemala, 16 in Honduras and nine in El Salvador. One-hundred people are missing in Guatemala and another 87 are injured, the nation's emergency agency reported Tuesday. In addition, nearly 125,000 people have been evacuated and 74,000 are living in shelters, said emergency official David de Leon.
The previously reported toll for Guatemala was 123 deaths, 90 people missing and 69 injured.
Guatemala also is feeling the effect of the Pacaya volcano, which erupted Thursday night and continued to spew ash Tuesday. Three people were killed when they were crushed by rocks strewn by the volcano. La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, the nation's capital, has been closed since Friday because of falling ash but was expected to open later Tuesday. Pacaya is located about 18 miles (30 kilometers) south of Guatemala City.
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a 15-day state of calamity after the volcano eruption. Damage from Tropical Storm Agatha added to the devastation. Destruction from the storm has been widespread throughout the nation, with mudslides destroying homes and buildings and burying some victims. At least nine rivers had dramatically higher levels and 13 bridges collapsed, the emergency services agency said. In the northern part of Guatemala City, the downpour created a sinkhole the size of a street intersection. Residents told CNN that a three-story building and a house fell into the hole.
It's stuff like this that makes me realize that our planet is slowly, yet surely fighting back against us. Okay, maybe it's not 'fighting back', but more reacting to centuries of having it's landscape altered for human use. That said, can we really be surprised at natural phenomena like the recent rash of earthquakes, the ash cloud over Europe, or this, a sinkhole in Guatemala? For those of you who aren't familiar, let's define sinkhole:
sinkhole - a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water (via Wikipedia)
That essentially means that wherever that sinkhole is located, there was a loose deposit of soil/bedrock that was disrupted by aquatic movement. In this case, the movement stemmed from Tropical Storm Agatha, which had the rest of the country up to its neck in torrential rain and mudslides. By the time that wave reached Guatemala City, the earth underneath the city was so screwed that a portion of it just caved in, causing a 300-foot sinkhole in the middle of downtown. The hole swallowed a 3-story building and everyone inside. Lord knows where the remains of that structure are. Like I said before, our planet has been trying to tell us something for a minute now. Alternative energy initiatives and 'green' living obviously haven't helped calm Mother Earth down, but I guess we can keep dreaming. Anyone else think the 2012 rumors are getting a little more eerie with stuff like this happening? Check out some more pictures of the sinkhole and chime in with the comments section below...
P.S.: Yes, I cited Wikipedia for that definition... Sue me.
