Piparo Mud Volcano cools down but residents still on edge

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

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While many slept com­fort­ably in­to Christ­mas morn­ing, it was an un­easy night for sev­er­al Pi­paro res­i­dents liv­ing near the Pi­paro Mud Vol­cano, as re­newed ac­tiv­i­ty and land move­ment threat­ened their safe­ty.

Al­though the blow­ing and hiss­ing sounds from the vol­cano sub­sided by night­fall on Christ­mas Eve, Fedell Solomon said he could not sleep as the sounds of his home shift­ing and tree roots burst­ing through the soil kept him awake. His house, lo­cat­ed sev­er­al hun­dred feet from the crater, had suf­fered dam­age be­fore, but he said con­di­tions had been sta­ble for years.

As rel­a­tives gath­ered at his home on Christ­mas Day yes­ter­day, Solomon told Guardian Me­dia the land move­ment, which be­gan around 9 am on Wednes­day, had not stopped.

He said new cracks ap­peared around the house overnight.

“The booms from the vol­cano have less­ened. It is pret­ty qui­et up there, but the move­ments are still con­tin­u­ing. Not as se­vere as it was yes­ter­day, but last night we had a lot of move­ment around the house. Even up­stairs, the kitchen area start­ed to go down a bit,” Solomon said.

Al­though the house­hold is Mus­lim, the fam­i­ly had planned a fam­i­ly day, gath­er­ing for break­fast and lunch. In­stead, they set­tled for what they could man­age.

The back room de­tached and slipped sev­er­al feet away from the rest of the house, elec­tric­i­ty was dis­con­nect­ed, and the wa­ter line broke.

While pow­er was lat­er re­stored, Solomon said his fam­i­ly re­mains ready to move at short no­tice.

For now, they are stay­ing in the home they have oc­cu­pied for the past 37 years, which pre­dates the ma­jor 1997 erup­tion.

On Pan­choo Road, Is­mael Lalls­ingh said the sound from the vol­cano had eased, but he re­mained on high alert.

As he and his wife pre­pared Christ­mas lunch, they await­ed the re­turn of their nine-year-old daugh­ter, who had gone to stay with rel­a­tives out of fear.

At Old Pi­paro Main Road, Gun­ness­ram Har­ri­lal said res­i­dents ig­nored ad­vice from au­thor­i­ties to re­lo­cate and chose to re­main in the area.

Like Lalls­ingh, he ques­tioned where res­i­dents could go, say­ing the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre was not a suit­able op­tion.

Har­ri­lal, whose home is clos­est to the vol­cano, said he slept light­ly, aware that con­di­tions could change at any mo­ment.

“Af­ter what hap­pened yes­ter­day, we have to be aware of it,” Har­ri­lal said.

“You have to keep one eye open and your ears clear.”

Har­ri­lal said the vol­cano had shown ac­tiv­i­ty sev­er­al times since 1997, but noth­ing com­pared to Wednes­day’s events.

From as ear­ly as 6 am Wednes­day, he said, there were con­tin­u­ous ex­plo­sions.

When res­i­dents checked the area, they saw fresh cracks in the ground and a new mound of mud form­ing.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the site yes­ter­day, fresh mud sur­round­ed the crater, and mod­er­ate­ly deep fis­sures ringed the crater.

One fis­sure ex­tend­ed to­wards the road­way, mak­ing it im­pass­able for some ve­hi­cles. While the mound at the crater had sub­sided, a steady hiss­ing sound con­tin­ued.

Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Jear­lean John vis­it­ed the Pi­paro Mud Vol­cano yes­ter­day but did not re­spond to What­sApp mes­sages seek­ing her as­sess­ment of the sit­u­a­tion or de­tails on any planned ac­tion.