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A 40-foot deep sinkhole opened under a Guatemalan woman’s bed on Monday. At 3-feet across, the suddenly-appearing death trap could have been a major safety hazard, but its location saved the family from harm.
“When we heard the loud boom we thought a gas canister from a neighboring home had exploded, or there had been a crash on the street,” Inocenta Hernandez, 65, said in an Agence France-Presse report.
“We rushed out to look and saw nothing. A gentleman told me that the noise came from my house, and we searched until we found it under my bed,” AFP quotes Hernandez as saying.
The area is prone to sinkholes.
In May 2010, a sinkhole about 60 feet across and 100 feet deep opened in the area, swallowing buildings and an intersection.
In 2007, another sinkhole claimed three lives in Barrio San Antonio in Guatemala City.
Hernandez told AFP that she is thankful the surprise under her bed wasn’t any bigger.
“Thank God there are only material damages, because my grandchildren were running around the house, into that room and out to the patio,” AFP quoted her as saying.
An enormous sinkhole swallowed a 3 story building whole in May of this year. This image was posted by the Guatemalan Government after a series of torrential rains and busted sewer pipes caused this hole to form.
Not Photoshop, sadly: these happen from time to time during major storms in part because of unstable geology, and in part, bad urban engineering… A break in the over-stressed sewage pipes after the storm was the cause for this one. There are rumors of other sinkholes now forming nearby.
This has happened before.
Photo – Gobierno de Guatemala | Via BoingBoing
Photo: susanhardman [Flickr] – via ok bye, the blog
Who says that cemeteries have to be all somber? Check out these colorful tombstones in the cemetery outside of Chichicastenango in Guatemala, as taken by photographer and avid traveler Susan Hardman.
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Most Fascinating Tombs in the World
This photo won honorable mention in the National Geographic International Photo Contest 2008, in the Places category.
Photo by Lori McConnell
From the Upcoming 
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