Third body found in Guatemala sinkhole (WOW! pictures)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | February 25, 2007

[lizol]

Third body found in Guatemala sinkhole

February 25, 2007

GUATEMALA CITY -- Emergency crews Saturday found a third body in a 330-foot-deep sinkhole that had swallowed a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood.

The body of Domingo Soyos, 53, was carried out of the enormous fissure and identified by family members, medical crews said.

Soyos was the father of teenagers Irma and David Soyos, whose bodies were found floating in a river of sewage soon after the sinkhole opened Friday.

Residents said there were other people unaccounted for, but emergency crews could not confirm that.

Officials blamed recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main for the tragedy. The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities feared it could widen or other sinkholes could open.

Police evacuated nearby homes and cordoned off a 500-yard perimeter around the crater. Security officials were on guard for possible looters and curious onlookers.

[JewishRighter]

"Security officials were on guard for possible looters"

I don't get it. They were tryin' to steal the hole?

[dead]

It's happening all around the globe!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

330-ft. is over the length of a football field.

I used to get scared about the central FL sinkholes when I was kid. Seems my fear is not so irrational after all, huh? ;-)

[Wraith]

The Asshole of the world is Where?

[DungeonMaster]

I've never seen a hole in the ground that I thought would give me nightmares before.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Mon Dieu!

[thulldud]

Hmph.

Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?

[Fierce Allegiance]

I see scraps is a boy dog.

[mombonn]

Some ways to die are worse than others. How horrible for these people.

[brothers4thID]

Looters?

Dude if someone wants to scale down a 330 foot deep hole to loot some sewage.. let him!

[agincourt1415]

I would not get within 2000 yards of that hole. Those officer just feet away, should have safety lines tied on their body.

[Pagey]

I'm having a premonition right now at work that when Hillary Clinton loses her run for the Presidency in 2008,this is what is going to happen when she returns to her Massive House in Washington D.C.

Hell will be calling her home, of course. LOLOLOL

[albee]

AY CARUMBA!!!

DAT'SA SOME SINKHOLE!!!

[SquirrelKing]

Dude, you ROCK!

[ForegoneAlternative]

If *I* owned the land, I'd sell tickets. On the other hand, DeSoto's Law probably holds here. In places like Guatemala, *nobody* can prove they own *anything*, and the government likes it that way...

[California74]

yeah, the pictures, coupled with this line from the article are going to give me nightmares, too!

"The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities feared it could widen or other sinkholes could open."

Sounds like something from the Art Bell show!!

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

Wow, great pictures. Scary hole.

[ReignOfError]

"Security officials were on guard for possible looters"

I don't get it. They were tryin' to steal the hole?

Sinkholes don't follow plat maps. They don't always swallow structures whole. If one wall of a building falls and the others stay up, it's open season on the stuff inside.

[Tijeras_Slim]

If one wall of a building falls and the others stay up, it's open season on the stuff inside.

That explains why all the 52" Plasma TV's in the neighborhood are gone.

[ReignOfError]

That explains why all the 52" Plasma TV's in the neighborhood are gone.

Liquor, guns, cash, portable electronics and jewelry are easier to carry and easier to fence (except the cash, of course). If you're an opportunist, and this happens in your neighborhood, you can just waltz in and grab what you can carry. "I'm just getting my things out," you say. No one is around who can say that they aren't actually yours. The rightful owner is out of town, at work, or at the bottom of the hole.

[Ghengis]

[reagan_fanatic]

Algore clutching an Oscar perhaps?

[AnAmericanMother]

Nope, we tested for it & we're o.k. (our slab is sealed and insulated). Plus we don't have a hermetically sealed house, which is where you have problems.

[JB in Whitefish]

Now maybe you comprehend the REAL meaning of a "real estate bubble bursting"...???

[Sawdring]

My thought exactly.

[Conservative4Ever]

Wowser. Notice the various colors in the layers of sediment. Interesting.

[Ghengis]

[Centurion2000]

that's a just damn moment.

[Centurion2000]

So that's what happens when someone uses a Talisman of Pure Good against an evil priest. (stupid D&D reference).

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

An open question for geology majors:

Given the depth and size of the hole, and the (very low) value of the property surrounding the hole, what do you do next?

Do you just abandon the "circle" around it, hoping the sides stay "vertical" and don't continue to cave in? I don't realistically see a way to fill it in, given the economy down there.

Downtown FL or just about anywhere in the center of a US city, it'd be filled in, or secured safely.

But down there?

[Tinian]

Thanks for posting those pics--they're truly mind boggling!

One question, though: where's the Heineken guy?

[cogitator]

Given the depth and size of the hole, and the (very low) value of the property surrounding the hole, what do you do next?

Devil's Millhopper State Park

First think I could think of ;-)

Winter Park Sinkhole

I guess the first real question is whether or not it can actually be stabilized.

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

So, when those Guatemalan buses (trucks?) fall in the hole, will they charge that $8.00 it takes to park in the LF sinkhole?

[I_be_tc]

later

[CarrotAndStick]

Police evacuated nearby homes and cordoned off a 500-yard perimeter around the crater. Security officials were on guard for possible looters and curious onlookers.

Maybe someone needs to step off the distance to make sure, but if that's 500 yards, then it looks like I can hit a nine iron about 500 yards in Guatemala.

Not sure if anyone else pointed it out to you, that 500 yard figure is in terms of perimeter, or circumference, and not measured radially.

[Safetgiver]

That’s a big stinkhole, alright.

[bigheadfred]

They say they can hear water moving. Make a real toilet out of it.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“Did you plug the hole daddy?”

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

No, no.

Between that pothole, the latest Iceland volcano, and Al Gore?

Obama is the biggest ashhole.

[thesharkboy]

“Have you seen my keys?”

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

It could become a wonderful city water storage “tank” - but the fact that its a sinkhole means water has already constantly washed out the bottom, and so it won’t stay “put” inside the “tank” ...

At least the Winter Park sinkhole (which I drove by before it collapsed when I lived a bit north of there) had a “bottom” they could seal up.

[mainsail that]

30m diameter I read but 100m deep

[Ultra Sonic 007]

A meter is longer than a yard, so 500 meters is longer than 500 yards.

[wardaddy]

damn what a sinkhole

anyone know what Zona this is?

aparece pobre

[razbinn]

PLUG THE DAMN HOLE!!!!!

[Tainan]

One report says ..."Hundimiento en la 21, 22, 23 y 24 avenidas del Barrio San Antonio zona 6. " and then there is this aerial picture...

[FourPeas]

LOL

[Tainan]

A bit of follow-up:

"The disaster took place in Zone 6, Barrio San Antonio. This place is located before entering to the road goes to the Northern part of the country (road that goes to Izabal, Zacapa, Chiquimula)
A giant sinkhole opened before dawn Friday, swallowing several homes and a truck and leaving a father and two teenagers missing in Guatemala City.
Officials said the 100-meter-deep (330-foot-deep) sinkhole in a crowded neighborhood of poor, concrete homes was caused by recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.
National disaster coordinator Hugo Hernandez identified the missing as Domingo, Irma and David Sosyos, ages 53, 18 and 15, respectively. A body appeared in a river of sewage near the sinkhole, but it was unclear whether the corpse was a victim."

[wardaddy]

goodness...i’ve gone that way before

those poor folks haven’t got much anyhow

[MarineBrat]

Somebody needs to have some Viking Kitties come flying out of that thing!