Culvert Breaks, Ground Collapses Beside House with Family Inside

A family from San Ignacio Town is lucky that their house did not collapse when recent rains caused a culvert to break next to their yard, pulling down the cement fence that held the ground together and creating a huge hole next to a house. It is believed that the two-story structure on Flamingo Avenue held up only because of the steel enforcements that it was built with. When News Five showed up at the site on Wednesday, employees of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing along with those from the San Ignacio/Santa Elena Town Board were there spreading rocks in the crater that was created when the ground broke loose. News Five’s Marion Ali filed this report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting
Nora Gomez was at home with her family a week ago when heavy rains caused the ground adjacent to their house in San Ignacio to become loose and cave in. It happened when a culvert that runs adjacent to their house broke and took with it the portion of the ground, creating a huge crater and exposing the posts of the cement house they live in. Gomez told News 5 that she and her family were inside when all she heard was a loud bang.

 

Nora Gomez, Occupant of House
“Every time it rains, the mud starts collapsing and that’s when the big wall that was sustaining the poster where the septic is dropped.”

 

Marion Ali

“What did it sound like? Were you scared?”

 

Nora Gomez

“Boom! Like, boom! The whole wall – when he went out, the wall dropped. That was the wall, the whole long wall that was sustaining it dropped, so, it’s something dangerous to have three kids and every time they go to the bathroom, it’s something you have to be right there with them. So, it’s something so dangerous for not only me, but my neighbors.”

 

Gomez says the problem had been giving them signs since before the last set of rains fell.

 

Nora Gomez

“When we came to live here my landlord said that it’s something, whenever it rains, it’s something, every time, little by little, the mud start dropping.”

 

On Wednesday, workmen from the San Ignacio Town Council were piling rocks to fill the hole. Thereafter, the plan is to rebuild the wall that secured the property from the culvert. San Ignacio/Santa Elena Mayor Earl Trapp told News Five that the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing provided the aggregates.

 

Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio/Santa Elena Town Council

“A creek has been washing away the foundation and base of residences and fence around that area, so it has basically compromised the integrity of that structure – the one, a house on Flamingo [Avenue]. So, currently we are working on trying to restore that with some big rocks at the moment.”

 

Nora Gomez

“With that wall they are fixing, it should sustain the mud and the post there.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.