Deep Sleep: Hole Nearly Swallows Gran's Bed

Hi ya! Glad you clicked on by today, yes indeed! Fill your mug. Snag one of those delectable checkered doughnuts with the hole in the middle from the top shelf and sit ye doon. Y’know I’m sure we all get unsetting dreams every once in a while – nightmares even but I doubt you’ve ever had one like this. In fact, it wasn’t a nightmare. It actually happened.

A grandmother in Guatemala City has had a lucky escape after a huge sinkhole suddenly opened up under her bed as she slept. Inocenta Hernandez woke up on July 18 to discover she was lying just inches above a 12m (40ft) deep sinkhole.

Mrs Hernandez was startled by a large booming sound which she thought was a gas explosion outside. The sound was actually the earth under her bed imploding to create a deep and almost perfectly circular hole. If the pit had been a few metres larger it may have swallowed the pensioner as she slept.

The 65-year-old said: "My son was crying because you never expect something like that in the bedroom. When they raised the bed and I stood by this big hole my son then said that we have to call the firefighters because they need to come.

"Thanks to God and the holy Mary that nothing bad happened, it was an accident."

In the weeks before the pit appeared neighbours had reported hearing strange sounds coming from the earth and now fear further implosions.

Guatemala's national disaster relief agency have come to Mrs Hernandez's home to investigate the sinkhole and determine if there are any risks to residents in the area. Investigator David De Leon said: "The whole city rests on volcanic material which means that some areas are not stable."

Sinkholes, formed by the natural process of erosion, can be gradual but are often sudden. Guatemala City is especially prone to them. They are often blamed on a leaky sewer system or on heavy rain.

In 2007, the country's largest sinkhole swallowed homes and a truck and killed three people as the ground suddenly gave way.

In 2010 a three-storey building was swallowed by another massive sinkhole.

Well now, if you look on the happy side of things, the home now has another indoor toilet! Just be careful when you squat!

See ya!

Bob

Comment from Robin in England re: Doc’s Gates of Hell Relish:

I love cooking with alcohol, sometimes I put it in the food.

Comment from John in Toronto or Erinsville depending on which day of the week it is:

Neanderthals do exist.
Just listen to and look at the majority of the NFL players and consider
their arguements about their new CBA, even though the've abandoned their
Union Accreditation.

Comment from Wayne in Quebec:

The only thing I ponder is the theory of evolution and as 'man' evolved it is said we evolved from the monkeys. Well why then are there still monkeys around?

Bones from Québec.

Bob’s Reply:

Obviously so they can play in the NFL!