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Expert: Guatemalan disaster not a sinkhole

El Salvador says storm damage to reach 20 million dollars
San Salvador (AFP) June 3, 2010 - Infrastructure damage caused by Tropical Storm Agatha, the first of this year's storm season, will cost some 20 million dollars to repair, El Salvador's Public Works Minister Gerson Martinez said Thursday. The storm, which killed at least 183 people in Central America, including 11 in El Salvador, also damaged a number of roads and bridges, the official said. "These are preliminary numbers, but initially we are seeking approximately 20 million dollars to repair damaged infrastructure and mitigate risks caused by the storm," Martinez said. He noted that some roads and public works were already vulnerable after strong storms that hit the country in November 2009. Martinez also said his government was in talks with Guatemala to repair the Manuel Jose Arce bridge at the border between the two countries that was closed due to storm damage. The bridge is one of the busiest in the region for cargo.
by Staff Writers
 Guatemala City (UPI) Jun 3, 2010
A Guatemalan geologist said the massive hole that opened up beneath Guatemala City's downtown is not a sinkhole but instead a "piping feature."

Geologist Sam Bonis said a sinkhole is defined as an area where bedrock has been eaten away by groundwater and the 100-foot deep, 66-foot wide hole that opened up during the weekend in the capital does not qualify, Discovery News reported.

He said the hole is instead a "piping feature" resulting from the pumice fill, ash flows from ancient volcanic eruptions, beneath the city. Bonis said the ash is 600 feet thick in some places.

Bonis said he and other experts were called in when a similar hole opened up just a few blocks away from the current site in 2007.

"Our recommendation was that this could happen again," he said. "When you have water flowing from storm water runoff, a sewage pipe, or any kind of strong flow, it eats away at the loose material. We don't know how long it has to go on before it collapses. But once it starts collapsing, God help us."

The expert said mislabeling the problem as a "sinkhole" could distract from discussion of a solution, which he said would involve finding new ways to deal with runoff and waste water in the city.


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