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RELATED ARTICLES: In Pictures: Guatemala hit by volcano and floods | Flooding work begins at Reem Island marina | Safety warning follows floods
Forget the worries of Europe at the threat of ash clouds from Iceland and spare a thought for those under siege this past week by Mother Nature in the central American nation of Guatemala.
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a state of emergency after a powerful eruption at the southern Pacaya volcano last week killed one person and forced the international airport to close. Ash blanketed the region as rocks and lava spewed from the volcano 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the capital, as Colom late Thursday issued the emergency decree lasting at least 15 days for the three departments nearest the eruption, which began Wednesday night and has since built in intensity.
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Problems for the region intensified over the weekend when Tropical Storm Agatha, packing sustained winds of 65 kph (40 miles) threatened the Pacific coasts of southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador to the Honduras border.
The storm weakened when it hit land, but it dumped enough rain to cause major landslides and create an enormous 200ft deep sinkhole which swallowed a three-story building and left one man missing when it opened on Sunday in a residential area of Guatemala city. The heavy rain, mudslides and floods left 11 missing and forced 3,000 to flee their homes, officials said.
Meanwhile, in nearby Ecuador, the Tungurahua volcano also began erupting on May 29, 2010, forcing the evacuation of at least seven villages and closing down the airport and public schools in Guayaquil, the country's largest and most populated city.
See more pictures of Guatemala's disaster here.
Associated Press yesterday reported that geologists said that the circular shape suggested a cave formation underneath, but what exactly caused the sinkhole was still a mystery.
"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 kilometres (two miles) from the site of a similar sinkhole three years ago.
Neighbours said it was a miracle no factory workers died.
"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 180 people.
Some neighbors 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."
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