By Sharlene Rampersad
Sybil Badal was thirty-five years old when the Piparo Mud Volcano erupted in 1997.
She lived with her mother and other relatives in a two-storey house on Robinson Hill, a short distance away from the volcano.
While her family was spared the horror of having to flee their home as the mud and debris from the volcano shot some 200 feet in the air and then came raining down, their home was still badly damaged.
Large cracks appeared in the concrete floor and around the concrete posts that supported the building.
At that time, officials focused on the 108 people who were left homeless after their homes were either covered with mud or destroyed by the volcano’s tremors.
“They say they was interested only in the people who was covered with the mud, not like how we is, they say we fall in second phase,” Badal told News 19 TT in an interview at her home on March 15.
“They never come, they never come back to ask we.”
Now, 29 years later, the volcano’s destructive force has once again disrupted Badal’s life.
On Christmas Eve 2025, rumblings from the volcano caused panic in the community. Tremors caused large waves to form along the road and cracked the concrete flooring of Badal’s home again.
The floor is now a maze of cracked concrete and the damage to the supporting posts is more pronounced. Two large sheds at the side and back of the home collapsed. Just metres away from the house, the road remains warped. It was closed by the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure but later reopened to local traffic.
Badal fears that when the dry season ends in May, heavy rain will further weaken the building and cause it to collapse.
She recalls the work her family did to stabilise their home in 1997.
“It was just as you see here, we had to cover all the stuff, all the post hole just so back, with our own thing because they say ‘Allyuh full up’ and they would reimburse back we the money. “They didn’t. Second phase never come, until it hit we now.”
On Christmas Eve, Badal was at work, just a stone’s throw away from the volcano.
She said she was picking fresh flowers when she noticed a new crack in the wall surrounding her employer’s home.
Her thoughts immediately turned to her own home.
“I tell my boss, ‘Girl, if this happening here, I wonder what happening home by me.’”
She said a short while later, she went home to check on her house.
Finding no major damage, she went back to work.
But not long after, she returned home again.
“To tell you the truth, I was so frighten, I wanted to use the washroom when I come home and when I reach and see the place crack up so, I never come inside, I remain in the road till my son come home.”
Her son, 45-year-old Vickram Moonesar, returned home a short while later with his wife, Shanti, and their two sons.
The family piled some of their belongings into the tray of Moonesar’s van and took it to a neighbour’s home a short distance away.
By then, word had spread on social media of the activity at the volcano and officials were in the area to assess the damage.
Badal said Vickram and his wife alerted the officials that their home had been damaged, and several people, including Works and Infrastructure Minister Jearlean John, visited the home.
“They say if we had somewhere to go but we couldn’t leave the house, so we stay.”
Moonesar said in the weeks after the seismic activity, the family got updates almost daily on the volcano.
But after almost three months, the family feels forgotten.
They have tried to do their own remedial work- including using iron pipes to prop the two sheds, so Badal’s van can be parked off the road. The pedestrian gate to their home is no longer usable, as thick straps were placed to keep it from detaching from the rest of their fence and collapsing.
Badal said they are still waiting for the State to assist them in repairing their home.
Moonesar hopes that a promise to relocate his family will come to fruition.
They have tried advocating for themselves, visiting the office of their Member of Parliament Aiyna Ali.
“They tell us to fill out a form for a HDC (Housing Development Corporation) house and they will try to assist,” Moonesar said.
But with no word on their application or any other form of assistance, Badal said she is left to beg.
“The only thing I want is for people not to forget we, we are here, we need people to come and see us. Just come and check we out and ask we, ‘What help allyuh need?’ cause nobody not coming, nobody coming to assist we at all.
“All we just asking for is a little assistance, you see my place, my place real terrible and all I could do is beg.”
In Part Two of Piparo: Silence after the shake, we’ll tell you what government ministers are saying and the fears of residents who live close to the Piparo Mud Volcano.
