Over the weekend a team of four technicians carried out testing in the partially abandoned district after five members of the Donavere Codrington family died as an apartment complex collapsed into the cavern.

Some of the remaining householders in the area had to abandon their homes since then, while two schools, Government-Owned St Paul's Primary and the privately-owned St Cyprian's had to be relocated. The all-clear has been given for the schools to return, while two houses are scheduled to be demolished.

On Saturday, Jim Prikyl, a field technician with the South West Research Institute in Texas, and his workers were in the district undertaking a variety of tests.

He said: "We're doing an electrical resistivity survey to map the sub surface here, looking for void spaces in the limestone.

Electrical current

"We are injecting an electrical current into the ground and then we're measuring the response of the rock to that current," he added.

Prikyl had been working in Arch Cot since late last week.

Since the tragedy, Attorney-General and Minister of Home Affairs Freundel Stuart, who is also parliamentary representative for the area, has been meeting with residents to let them know what must be done to return life to normal there.

He had said Government was guided by the information contained in two experts' reports which had made certain recommendations, including keeping certain parcels of land out of use.

Stuart also pointed out that in spite of the expert reports, some of the students, parents and residents werestill afraid to return and a serious job of education and persuasion had to be undertaken to assure them the area was safe. (JM)