In the middle of the devastation caused by Hurricane Agatha,
Hardest hit was Guatemala, with 152 people killed, dozens injured and at least 100 people missing following the floods and mudslides that swept away ramshackle homes along hills and destroyed bridges and roads.
As many as 22,000 dwellings were destroyed in Guatemala and 155,000 people forced from their homes, about half of whom remained in shelters, officials said.
…
Guatemala City’s response was hampered by a separate emergency: the eruption of a nearby volcano whose ash forced the closure of the capital’s international airport since last week, when two people were also killed and three went missing.
one extraordinary disaster stands out:
The apparently bottomless sinkhole that swallowed a three-story building,
ruptured sewer line is thought to have caused the sinkhole that appeared in Guatemala City in 2007.
The 2010 Guatemala sinkhole could have formed in a similar fashion, Currens said. A burst sanitary or storm sewer may have been slowly saturating the surrounding soil for a long time before tropical storm Agatha added to the inundation.
Dot Earth’s also posting on it.
Will the sinkhole get larger?
UPDATE
Obi’s Sister calls it “Guatemala’s hole to China.”
