Sascha Wilson
Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Although no official warning has been issued regarding the Cascadoux mud volcano in Mayaro, the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation is ensuring that safety measures are in place in the event of an eruption.
This follows a small eruption from a new vent that formed from the main volcano, which resulted in three families being evacuated last week Thursday.
Guardian Media understands that two of the families have returned to their homes while the Seecharan family who live mere feet away from the volcano has opted to stay away until they get the all clear.
In a telephone interview with Guardian Media, the corporation’s chairman Raymond Cozier said they found five new vents at the site.
While a team from the UWI Seismic Research Centre and geologists visited the site and collected samples on Saturday, Cozier said they have to return to do a more in-depth study.
However, he said there was not much activity at the volcano site, “just some small bubbles, but no eruption is taking place, no real activity.”
However, Cozier said the SMU has identified a muster point for the community, and this week they would be having a meeting with all the villagers to discuss the risks and an emergency evacuation plan.
“We have already installed an early warning system there sometime last year but that was tsunami but we are using it right now at this time volcano so that if anything happens that warning will be for the volcano. The warning system has the capacity to use different sounds so going forward they will put different sounds for different disasters.”
Cozier said the affected family—Rajesh Seecharan, 24, his wife and three-year-old son—has left the shelter and is staying by relatives.
However, he said the family has been accepted into the Ministry of Social Development three-month rental programme, and an apartment has already been identified.
“They don’t want to go back to their home. They haven’t been given any official report saying go home or don’t go, if it is safe or unsafe for them, but unofficially they were informed it is a risk because they don’t know what could happen,” he said.
Meanwhile, geologist Xavier Moonan and a team carried out assessments on the mud and rocks from the volcano on Saturday.
Moonan, on a social media post, said they toured the area between the main and new vents with the affected residents, encountering at least three additional sites oozing fresh mud albeit very small volumes.