Noise, non-stop dust, and being buried alive

Grain silo collapse injures Hondo man

Zeke MacCormack
Express-News

A Hondo man was seriously injured Monday when a downtown grain silo collapsed after being the subject of recent neighborhood complaints to city leaders.

John Anthony Garcia, 20, was buried for about 20 minutes in a mountain of corn kernels after the full silo beside U.S. 90 split open at 12:50 p.m., said Police Chief Johnny Martinez.

"At least seven or eight people were trying to dig him out, including myself," he said. "The corn is like sand. When you make a hole, it's going to fill it back up — so we used a front-end loader to get larger quantities out of the way."

When rescued, Garcia was breathing but unconscious, Martinez said. He was flown to University Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

Mayor Jim Danner said the complex of about 10 silos off Avenue O had been idle for a year or more before being bought recently by David Jones. Its renewed use led to a meeting last week in which neighbors complained about noise, dust and more.

"What the community was saying, it is true. They are a safety hazard and they need to be moved out of the community," said Chavel Lopez of the Hondo Empowerment Committee. "The whole tank disintegrated completely. The corn spilled all over the place and into the street."

A follow-up meeting was slated for coming weeks among city officials, residents, regulatory agencies and Jones, who could not be reached for comment after the accident.

Danner noted that the silos have operated for decades, the area is zoned for commercial use and Jones appears to hold all the proper permits.