RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Four days af­ter her home col­lapsed around her, 45-year-old Geneive Pierre re­mains in­jured, forced to sleep in the tar­pau­lin-cov­ered wreck­age with her eight-year-old daugh­ter and nine-year-old grand­son.

While the chil­dren sleep on cush­ions on the bro­ken floor of a house that could ful­ly col­lapse at any mo­ment, Pierre prays con­stant­ly that some­one will help them.

On Thurs­day, when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the house—lo­cat­ed at Pal­too Trace, South Oropouche—it was lean­ing dan­ger­ous­ly, the wood­en posts bro­ken and the walls caved-in.

With no rel­a­tives in Trinidad and no place to turn, Pierre said she had no choice but the stay in the shell of what used to be her home.

Wip­ing away tears, she re­called the hor­rif­ic mo­ment when the house col­lapsed.

"I was comb­ing my daugh­ter's hair about 8 o’clock on Mon­day when I heard a rum­ble and the walls be­gan to shake. I thought it was an earth­quake. I just feel every­thing just com­ing down, com­ing down, com­ing down," she cried.

Shield­ing her daugh­ter with her slen­der body, Pierre suf­fered in­juries to her leg.

"When I just see the par­ti­tion from the high­er wall just com­ing in, I tried to pro­tect my daugh­ter from that, and I got hurt. My leg got hit," she said, point­ing to the swelling and bruis­es.

She re­called how one neigh­bour came to her aid but de­spite be­ing in­jured, Pierre said she had not sought med­ical help.

“If I go to the hos­pi­tal, who go­ing to take care of these chil­dren? I am the on­ly one they have,” she whis­pered.

Pierre said her life fell apart long be­fore the house did, as two years ago, her hus­band, Gre­go­ry Pierre died.

"Rent be­came too much. I could not cope," she added.

With no steady job, she used her en­tire sav­ings—$25,000—to buy the wood­en struc­ture at Pal­too Trace and got an elec­tric­i­ty con­nec­tion in her name. She said there was no one to help her and no sup­port sys­tem.

“My rel­a­tives … they're no longer in the coun­try. They live in Grena­da," she added.

Pierre said she tried her best to cope, work­ing at URP and clean­ing peo­ple's homes. Some days, a lo­cal church would give them gro­ceries.

“I do my best. We man­age day by day but now I don't know what to do.”

She said her nine-year-old grand­son has lived with her since he was one month old. Her 20-year-old son Isa­iah has been bat­tling de­pres­sion and men­tal ill­ness since his fa­ther died, while her el­dest daugh­ter walked away years ago af­ter giv­ing birth. Pierre does not know where she is but got a vis­it a lit­tle over a year ago.

“I have nowhere to stay. No­body to stay by and no­body to watch the chil­dren for me to get med­ical help," she cried.

She said af­ter the house col­lapsed, the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit vis­it­ed and gave her two tar­pau­lins.

“Every­thing mash up in­side. I can­not cook but the neigh­bours have been bring­ing food,” she said.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo and Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Van­dana Mo­hit who im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond­ed and despatched a team to in­ves­ti­gate.

Mayrhoo vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly per­son­al­ly and said arrange­ments were be­ing made to evac­u­ate the fam­i­ly to the Oropouche Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

He called on cor­po­rate T&T to pro­vide build­ing ma­te­ri­als to re­con­struct Pierre's home.

Any­one wish­ing to as­sist Geneive Pierre can call her at 278-1206 or May­or Mayrhoo at 751-3565.