Monster Mold Threatens Health in the South

Earthlink.net ^ | September 27, 2005 | Silverman, Breed, Marchione

[Past Your Eyes]

NEW ORLEANS - Wearing goggles, gloves, galoshes and a mask, Veronica Randazzo lasted only 10 minutes inside her home in St. Bernard Parish. Her eyes burned, her mouth filled with a salty taste and she felt nauseous. Her 26-year-old daughter, Alicia, also covered in gear, came out coughing.

"That mold," she said. "It smells like death."

Mold now forms an interior version of kudzu in the soggy South, posing health dangers that will make many homes tear-downs and will force schools and hospitals to do expensive repairs.

[TheBigB]

"Monster Mold" would be a GREAT name for a rock band!

[Wonder Warthog]

" I was driven out of Louisiana by a 1987 Honda Civic."

I prefer Acuras. More go, better accessories.

[Old Professer]

I can't imagine mold living in saltwater.

[ncountylee]

Can bio diesel be made from mold?

[DannyTN]

"Monster Mold" would be a GREAT name for a rock band!

"Monster Mold" would be a great name for Hilary's campaign strategy.

[GrandEagle]

burn the place down

Although half joking, I do think that is about the only option!

GE

[Past Your Eyes]

Hey, it was a rental and we were on the cheap. Besides, we just wanted to stick our toe into the state so that we could say we'd been there. Extreme NW corner. Caddo Parish, IIRC.

[ex-Texan]

Mold is not covered by most insurance policies. Example: John Smith's house was damaged by wind rather than flooding. But the heavy rain soaked the attic. Mold starts to grow in the meantime. Unless he acts quickly to mitigate the damage, Smith is scr@ewd.

[GrandEagle]

Waveland
I lived there for a while. Still have friends that I've not heard from. They won't let us in either to look.
Is there anything left there?

GE

[DTogo]

That was an X-files episode, the El Chupacabra was actually some guy with the "touch" of killer mold.

[null and void]

Wait a minute, isn't that an image of the Virgin Mary I see there?

No. That's the Vigin Moldy...

[Wonder Warthog]

"Extreme NW corner. Caddo Parish, IIRC."

Then you haven't been to Louisiana. Anywhere north of Alexandria is actually an extension of Mississippi/Alabama redneck country.

"Brought youself" to Lafayette, Opelousas, New Roads, Marksville, Mansura, or similar and see the REAL Louisiana.

[SevenDaysInMay]

EPA waiver to burn N.O.: cauterize the mass suicide pit just like Mrs. O'Leary's cow in Chicago, or more exactly the Afro-poverty-pimp racists fomenting the flaming L.A., Detroit, D.C. Riots -

Burn, Baby, burn.

[Okies love Dubya 2]

I hear Waveland is pretty much gone, but I could be wrong. Our friends in Pass Christian lost their home (I just heard from them last week--they are in Indiana right now).

My brother has a home less than 10 blocks from the Quarter and while it didn't flood too bad and he only lost a couple of windows (and his car), he's still worried about mold (he stayed for a week after Katrina, then got out). He's in Indianapolis, looking for a short-term apartment because he found a job there last week.

Mold in LA is killer--we moved to Slidell in 1999 and our then 1 year old daughter had severe allergies to it--they put her on medication for it after she kept getting ear infections and sinus infections from the allergy. Once we left there in the latter part of 2000, she was fine.

[Syco]

You destroy the houses. People can't understand the scope of this problem from TV, and yes, the media has made things much worse by crying wolf for the past month about everything from the violence in New Orleans to the supposed racism of the recovery. I can tell you several things.

First, the physical devastation in Mississippi is WORSE than the media is reporting. All of the attention has been given to New Orleans, but in Mississippi, some communities are simply GONE. I credit this under reporting with simple laziness on the part of the media as well as politically motivated focusing on New Orleans which can more easily be placed at the feet of the Feds (for some reason that I'm still trying to understand).

Second, I saw zero evidence of racism among the relief workers. People of all races were working together to improve the situation, but things are pretty dire. It will take YEARS to rebuild.

Third, the mold is a very real problem. Please don't shrug it off as more media hype. I was there. The pictures above are accurate. A forty foot wall of water came through the areas of coastal Mississippi where I was working. In that environment, where daytime temps were routinely in the mid 90's and humidity hovered around 90%, mold grows like grass. Don't believe me? Take a wet towel and throw it in a high school locker for a week. Remember the smell? It's EVERYWHERE down there.

Fourth, are the homeowners screwed? You betcha! Few people have the right insurance in those areas and those who do are underinsured in most cases. Many of them have hurricane insurance, but the insurers won't pay because they don't have flood insurance.

Lastly, what can you do about the mold? You have to go in, remove EVERYTHING from the houses (furniture, flooring, drywall, kitchen cabinetry, toilets, shower inserts, etc.) and spray the 2X4 skeleton of the building with a bleach solution. That will get rid of a LOT of the mold, but you have to be diligent and several applications are necessary. Even then, there are no guarantees. Then, if they're like most American counties, the authorities will need to come in after about a month and do a moisture reading of the building (usually between 15 & 17%). They won't let you hang one sheet of sheet rock until you meet this minimum. And even then, there's still a very real possibility that you'll have mold problems and have to destroy the building.

But ask yourself, if it was you're house wouldn't you want to at least try to save it? Most people would.

The stark reality is that the MAJORITY of the homes along the coast and in New Orleans will need to be destroyed and rebuilt over the next few years. That news may be getting old, but it's got to stay in front of us.

One last thing, please don't blame these people because they built in a flood plain. The people who had houses on the coast lost EVERYTHING. Their homes are simply gone. They aren't the ones we're talking about. In some areas of Mississippi the flood waters came into areas that are ten miles inland and have NEVER FLOODED BEFORE. NO ONE expected this. I worked in a home that was located fifteen feet above sea level AND was built on ten foot stilts AND STILL had six feet of water in the structure. Katrina really was unprecedented.

[Syco]

Not much is left. The south side of the railroad tracks is totally destroyed. It looks like someone put a lumber yard in a blender and spread it all around. On the northern side of the tracks most structures are still standing, but there is extensive damage. Almost all of the buildings need to be completely gutted or demolished and rebuilt. Fortunately most people got out in time, but it's hard to believe that anyone could have survived if they were near the beach and caught in the storm surge. Since you're from the area you'll understand how bad it was. Some folks in The Kiln had 8' of water in their homes. I've never seen anything like it, and I hope that I never see anything like it again. I hope that you're friends are okay.

FYI, you can probably get into Waveland now. The military is everywhere and they've really restored order and opened the area. Most people there are homeowners or relief workers, but at this point no one would mind your presence.

[GrandEagle]

The Kiln had 8'
I would have never guess this!
I am currently helping the DCS team at the Dupont plant there in The Pass get the plant back up and running. They had 8'-14' of water in most control rooms. They said that the water was 20 feet OVER the levee built on the bay side.
My Mother-in-law is buried in the Waveland Cemetery. I hope it didn't float the caskets away - my wife will be heartbroken. My Father-in-Law just moved to the Carolinas last year from Waveland. He would not have left for the Hurricane. The move probably saved his life.
The last place I lived was in the big, white apartment complex just off of Highway 90 on the west side of Waveland. I bought my first new car from Charlie Henderson Ford there in Waveland. Lots of good memories.

Thanks for the info. I'll try and get down there this week. I didn't want to get in the way.

[Ditter]

I have been waiting for the mold stories to start. This problem is real and it's REAL bad. Some people are sickened by mold some are not. It is not a scam. We had mold develop in our bay house. It made me sick as a dog every time I spent the night in the house and my husband was not bothered at all. I would wake up with a blinding headache and in 24 hours I had an infection, sinus or bronchial. The mold was inside the walls, in the a/c units and under the wall paper so we had trouble finding it. We sold the house as is because it was going to cost more than it was worth to fix it. The guy who bought it did a halfa$$ job cleaning & repairing. I wouldn't want to be the next buyer.

[GrandEagle]

Mold is not covered by most insurance policies.
Mine is with ALFA insurance and states that it is only covered if it resulted from a covered incident. Flooding is not a covered incident, but leaking from the loss of a roof is.
That is what mine says anyway.

GE

[ShadowDancer]

It doesn't live in the saltwater, it's created by the moisture left after the water recedes. Or, if the water is still standing for a long period of time it will grow right above the water line on water surface is there.