SASCHA WIL­SON

Al­though a fam­i­ly liv­ing near the Pi­paro mud vol­cano was told to evac­u­ate be­cause of the im­mi­nent threat of an erup­tion, mem­bers of the pub­lic are ig­nor­ing warn­ings to stay away from the site.

Yes­ter­day a fam­i­ly, in­clud­ing chil­dren, were among sev­er­al peo­ple who by­passed cau­tion tape at two main ac­cess points and the perime­ter of the vol­cano to get a close-up view of the nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­non. Some of them even climbed the mound to get a bet­ter view.

Snr Su­per­in­ten­dent of the South­ern Di­vi­sion Wayne Mo­hammed was kept busy turn­ing peo­ple away from the site.

Is­su­ing an­oth­er warn­ing to the pub­lic, he said: “I am be­seech­ing the me­dia to as­sist the po­lice in ask­ing per­sons who are not liv­ing in and around the area of Pi­paro not to ven­ture to the mud vol­cano, that it is a dis­as­ter zone.”

Mean­while, in a me­dia re­lease, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty as­sured res­i­dents that ac­tiv­i­ty at the site is be­ing close­ly mon­i­tored by the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties.

“The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM) has been in con­sul­ta­tion with the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Units of the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and with Mr Xavier Moo­nan, Se­nior Geo­sci­en­tist at Touch­stone Ex­plo­ration. Mr Moo­nan has con­duct­ed nu­mer­ous tests at the site as well as drone sur­veys to pro­duce a 3D map­ping of the area. Res­i­dents have al­so been con­sult­ed on the in­creased ac­tiv­i­ty,” the min­istry said.

“Just three days ago, one res­i­dent re­port­ed cracks form­ing on the Pi­paro Main Road which al­so caused dam­age to his home. The scent of sul­phur was al­so not­ed.”

Of­fi­cers from the Princes Town Fire Sta­tion, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice cor­doned off the area to pre­vent mem­bers of the pub­lic from en­ter­ing the space which was closed to ve­hic­u­lar and pedes­tri­an traf­fic. In ad­di­tion, po­lice pa­trols in the area have been in­creased.

The re­lease con­tin­ued: “The ODPM, TTPS, Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice (TTFS), Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) and Ge­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go (GSTT) are close­ly ob­serv­ing the site to en­sure the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of res­i­dents and cit­i­zens.”

How­ev­er, that has done lit­tle to al­lay res­i­dents’ fears. While on Tues­day morn­ing they heard no rum­bling sounds, res­i­dents said gas is still spew­ing out the crater, new cracks have ap­peared on the road, the old cracks have widened and the im­me­di­ate area around the vol­cano has caved in.

The dam­age to the Solomon fam­i­ly’s home is wors­en­ing every day as the house con­tin­ues to shift. The fam­i­ly has par­tial­ly heed­ed po­lice ad­vice and have moved out their “prized pos­ses­sions.” How­ev­er, Fi­del Solomon com­plained that there were no prop­er ac­com­mo­da­tions for him and his fam­i­ly.

Solomon, a busi­ness­man, re­called that af­ter the ma­jor erup­tion in 1997 every­one got re­lo­cat­ed ex­cept them.

“We built it back. A year ago there were move­ments we built it back and now (this),” he said.

He ad­mit­ted that it is not safe for his fam­i­ly to re­main in their home be­cause of the struc­tur­al dam­age and is ask­ing to be al­lo­cat­ed an HDC unit.

“Right now we need as­sis­tance be­cause it is very bad right now. Is not like I want to leave here and go to an HDC house be­cause of com­fort or what­ev­er,” he said.

Solomon said they were told that a shel­ter has been set up at the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, but its an open space with no bath­room fa­cil­i­ties.

“It might be able to ac­com­mo­date one fam­i­ly but not a vil­lage,” he said.

At present, he and his five rel­a­tives are sleep­ing on mat­tress­es so in the event of any dis­as­ter they can make a speedy es­cape.

“For the last three nights, we are like owls, wak­ing. You know you just rest­ing your head but at any point in time you hear­ing noise, you hear­ing con­crete falling. You just wait­ing to dis­patch be­cause of the vol­cano,” he said.

The fam­i­ly has been vis­it­ed by Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath, Cou­va Tabaquite Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Hen­ry Awong and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Shayam Mo­hammed, said nei­ther he nor his neigh­bours have had any com­mu­ni­ca­tions or vis­its from any of­fi­cials.

Mo­hammed who was a child when the vol­cano erupt­ed in 1997, said he has no plans to evac­u­ate.

Geo­physi­cist and CNC3 weath­er pre­sen­ter Kalain Ho­sein, who vis­it­ed the site yes­ter­day, said the vol­cano is still very ac­tive and ex­pelling a lot of gas. Not­ing that new cones have de­vel­oped, he warned peo­ple against vis­it­ing the site.