Posted on 02/23/2007 7:18:57 PM PST by FreedomCalls
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AP) -- 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. ...
The pit was emitting foul odors, loud noises and tremors, and a rush of water could be heard from its depths. Authorities feared it could widen or others could open up.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Too bad you can't fit all that in a tagline. It would be a good one.
I know and frankly, you guys are hot. LOL
Caveat: If one of or neither of you are men, I retract my last comment. Hahahahaha
Well, since the tunnels interconnect with each other and with cenotes like the tunnels in a termite nest, they can be dozens of miles long.
There was a National Geographic article (10/01/2003) about divers exploring the cenotes and the interconnecting cave tunnels that we took with us to the Yucatan trip. The article had a fold-out illustration diagram that include a tunnel reaching the sea and opening at the seabed to create an "Ojo de Mar".
I've known a few very crazy people who dive the connections between the cenotes, and one of the guys I worked with on a dive team had recovered bodies from Jacob's Well in Texas, but I've never done it.
Money is an issue, but it's also incredibly risky.
ping
Perhaps their sewage system doubles for body disposal , or could be just poorly written article.
Oh my gosh! How awful. That's a huge sink hole.
BUMP
Sinko De Mexico
Me be a dude.
I had forgotten all about Jacob's Well until you mentioned it. I remember an old dive story from my first SCUBA instructor who was a cave diver. Nightmarish recoveries of bodies which had clawed the cave walls down to their knuckles.
The one dive story they recounted, circa 1976, which I believe had come from Jacob's Well or a similar geologic sping in the central Texan hill areas, involved himself and another diver who had partied the night before diving, drove to the site, had their tanks filled up at a gas station in route which advertised SCUBA tank filling services.
The spring descended in the first chamber about 50-90 feet, then one entered a somewhat horizontal shaft for about 30 ft. The shaft then entered something like a diaphragm which silted up to perhaps 3 ft diameter when water flows were low, but opened up to about 5ft diameter when higher flows removed side deposits. The goal was to reach an interior third chamber, which ascended in a cavern with an air pocket, where a diver could ascend and eat lunch or take a break, before descending for the exit by the same route.
When they descended, one diver remembered feeling as though he was suffering the effects from a previous night hangover, and continued. They both reached the diaphragm, and had to take off their tanks, pass their tanks through the hole, then follow them through and put them back on their bodies. While performing this action, they had large flashlights, but generally performed the exercise in darkness.
As the second diver came through the hole and put on his tank, then reorienting himself, couldn't find his dive buddy who had entered before him. Figuring he must've continued to the cavern bubble, he ascended some 20 feet, but didn't find him there. Since there wasn't any other place for him to go, he figured he must've returned to the surface and passed him while he was changing out his tank.
So he descended, took off his tank, passed it through the hole, swam through, looking for his buddy, not to be found, ascended tot he surface only to find no trace of his diving buddy.
So now it becam evident he was still below, he descended again, swam and searched, took off his tank, passed through the hole, put back on his tank and surfaced in the cavern, not finding him again. Then he began searching with his light and descending to methodically search for him.
His flashlight caught a glint of his dive buddy's regulator hanginf loosely from his mouth. His dive buddy was in the third chamber, unconscious, below water. He then attmpted to revive him unsuccessfully, so he pulled him down, took off both their tanks, passed him through the hole, then himself, donned his tank then pulled his buddy out through the second chamber, then ascended with him to the surface.
At the surface, he pulled his buddy to the shore and pulled him out, trying several times to give mouth to mouth. Once on shore, he checked and had no pulse or breath. He then began mouth to mouth with CPR and continued for 15 minutes unsuccessfully. He continued for total of 30 minutes and then felt a pulse. He then continued CPR for what seemed to be another 30 minutes when his dive buddy revived.
They later backtracked their steps and discovered the gas station which advertised SCUBA tank filling services was using the same air compressor to fill tanks as their auto shop, ie. not using an oil-less compressor. The compressed air used by his buddy had been filled at the station while his was from a spare tank filled elsewhere. When they had descended, his buddy's sensation of hangover was actually symtomatic of carbon monoxide poisoning, and he passed out further down.
Moral of the story is if giving CPR, don;t give up at typical 30 minute stop times.
Unbelievable! I'm glad I read the article. From the headline, I thought it was talking about the Democratic National Convention of 2004.
Billy Jack
billyjacksblog.com
Let's see....a sewage line 330 feet deep...pretty good
engineering work down there..
I don't think that occured at Jacob's Well, but probably at one of the other underwater caves in the region. The distinctive features of Jacob's Well are that it descends vertically to about 90 feet, to the first chamber. Divers frequently carve their initials in that chamber. After that is a chamber you have to take off your tanks to enter. That chamber has a silt problem, and squeezing through the hole stirs it up. There's no air chamber in that one, but there are two exits. One goes back to the original chamber, the other leads to a larger chamber further down. That chamber is supposed to be large enough to hold four busses, and I don't know of anyone who has fully explored it.
People die in Jacob's Well, usually due to one of two reasons. With the most interesting part being at 90 feet, you only have about five minutes to explore unless you've made arrangements to decompress on the way up. Some guys, after entering the chamber where you have to take off your tanks, take the wrong exit and go deeper instead of taking the exit. Jacobs Well also has another feature, a false chimney in the main shaft. When descending, it's easy to miss the false chimney, but it's actually larger than the main shaft, and at about sixty feet. If you take the false chimney, you ascend to a total depth of about ten feet, but there's a rock dome completely blocking any pathway to the surface. You don't have enough air or time to descend back and find the main shaft and ascend to the surface. If you take the false chimney path to try and get to the surface, you're dead.
One thing I found from being on a search and rescue team is that cavers and cave divers tend to have a real dislike of rescue workers. They call us "The Agency." For that reason, most cave and cave diving rescues and recoveries are actually made by members of the loose association of cavers and divers, and never get reported to the agency, unless there is a death involved.
BTW, on my blog, I wrote a short account of my first attempt at a body recovery, open water, not cave. It's here, if you're interested.
Giant Sinkhole Ping. Down at the bottom you can hear rushing water and it stinks terribly.
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