Tropical Storm Agatha Floods Kill 150, Cause Giant Sinkhole in Guatemala City

CSMonitor- Flooding and landslides from Tropical Storm Agatha have killed more than 150 people throughout Central America in the past few days, and apparently caused a giant Guatemala City sinkhole.

Villagers have been buried alive in Guatemala. Residents, caked in mud, have searched in the wreckage of their homes for loved ones. Aerial photos show entire swaths of the nation's coffee crop under water. Then, there's the giant Guatemala City sinkhole.

The Atlantic hurricane seasons opens today, preceded by the Pacific one just weeks earlier, but already seasonal weather – coupled with volcano eruptions and other freak accidents – has battered Central American nations.

More than 150 people have been killed, mostly due to flooding and landslides, after Tropical Storm Agatha, the first Pacific storm of the season, struck Guatemala Saturday, impacting El Salvador and Honduras as well. Thousands across the region are homeless.

The worst hit nation is Guatemala. In the Chimaltenango Province west of Guatemala City, landslides buried dozens of communities, leaving at least 60 dead.

"The department has collapsed," Gov. Erick de Leon told the Associated Press. "There are a lot of dead people. The roads are blocked. The shelters are overflowing. We need water, food, clothes, blankets — but above all, money."

Isolated villages
Although the sun emerged in Guatemala yesterday, the number of those dead could rise as rescue workers attempt to reach communities that have been isolated by washed out roads and bridges.

Schools were shut down across the region, and the risk of more deadly landslides has not passed. In Guatemala over 110,000 people have been evacuated.

In El Salvador, where 11,000 people have been evacuated and ten killed, 179 bridges were wrecked. The Lempa River already flooded 20 villages, officials say, and the Acelhuate River could top its banks and flood the capital.

In Honduras, thousands have fled their homes as three more days of rain are forecast and rivers are already swollen near the capital, Tegucigalpa.

The storm hit on Saturday, just two days after the the Pacaya volcano, about 20 miles south of Guatemala City, erupted, causing the international airport to shut down.

Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom had declared a 15-day calamity, before Tropical Storm Agatha dumped three feet of water in the western part of the country. Officials have said that the ash from the volcano, which again covered the airport Monday, could aggravate flooding as it blocks the nation's drainage systems.

The Guatemalan government posted photos of the flooding tragedy, including one of a sinkhole apparently the size of an entire street block, that opened in the northern section of Guatemala City. A three-story building was swallowed by the hold. Authorities are investigating the cause. A sinkhole in the same area killed three people in 2007.

Last November, Hurricane Ida struck the region, killing at least 150 people from landslides and flooding.

The worst in recent memory was Hurricane Mitch, from the Atlantic Hurricane season, which in 1998 killed almost 11,000 people and left 8,000 missing.

Landslide Swallows Canadian Home: Bodies of Family of Four Recovered from Sinkhole Wreckage

NY Daily News- A family of four was found dead in their basement after their farmhouse was swallowed into the earth by a massive sinkhole.

The bodies of Richard Prefontaine, his wife, Line, and their two young daughters, Anais and Amelie, were pulled from the wreckage in St. Jude, Quebec, a day after Monday night's flash landslide, the Toronto Star reported.

"After digging and going through the rubble we found the four victims," Michel Dore, Quebec's emergency management coordinator, told reporters Tuesday night. "They were found very close to one another, some of them lying on the couch in the family room in the basement."

Quebec police said the resulting crater is 500 meters by 100 meters (1,640 feet by 330 feet) wide and 30 meters (98 feet) deep, Canada's Globe and Mail reported.

The sole survivor of the tragedy seems to be one of the family's two dogs, which rescue workers found alive outside the home.

"It was like an earthquake," a neighbor, Herman Gagnon, told the Montreal Gazette. Gagnon drove from his home toward town to see what had happened - a drive that took him past the Prefontaine home.

"It was only when I approached the edge of the crevice that I realized what happened," he said.

Report: At Least 2 in Family Die After Sinkhole Swallows Home

[Update 9:59 p.m. ET] Two members of a family whose home was swallowed by a sinkhole were found dead Tuesday evening, officials said, CNN affiliate CBC reports.

The condition of two other family members was not available. All four members of the family were found in the basement of the home, Michel C. Doré, Quebec's associate deputy public security minister,told the CBC.

[Update 2:49 p.m. ET] The mud-caked dog of a Canadian family has been found in a sinkhole that swallowed their home, but searchers have found no signs of the couple and their two daughters, ages 9 and 11, CNN affiliate CBC reported Tuesday afternoon.

Yvon Desrochers, uncle of homeowner Richard Préfontaine, told CBC he fears his nephew and his family were in the home’s basement watching the Montreal Canadiens-Pittsburgh Penguins hockey playoff game Monday night when the ground gave way beneath the home, about 40 miles northeast of Montreal.

[Posted 11:07 a.m. ET] A Quebec family of four was missing Tuesday after a massive sinkhole swallowed their home, according to reports from CNN affiliates.

Authorities said the home fell 30 feet into the hole when it opened around 9:30 p.m. Monday. A couple in their 40s and two children, ages 9 and 11, were believed to be inside, according to a report by CNN affiliate CBC news.

The couple’s vehicles were seen outside the house and efforts to reach them by cell phone were unsuccessful, authorities told the CBC.

"We tried to reach them by phone, because the father always wears his cellphone on him," Quebec Provincial Police Sgt. Ronald McKinnis told CBC. "The firefighters heard the cellphone, but they weren't able to [locate] it."

The hole was about 500 yards long and forced the evacuation of five other homes in the town of Saint-Jude, in a rural area near the Yamaska River about 40 miles northeast of Montreal, CNN affiliate CTV reported.

McKinnis told the CBC that the hole was first reported by a truck driver whose rig fell into it Monday night. He suffered only minor injuries, McKinnis said.

Search-and-rescue dogs were being called in to help the search, according to a report in the Montreal Gazette, and a helicopter was circling the area looking for signs of movement.