For buildings left standing, next major menace is mold

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Sept. 17, 2005, 6:15PM

HEALTH RISK

For buildings left standing, next major menace is mold

Spores awakened by Katrina's waters are multiplying

By BETH DALEY

Boston Globe

HURRICANE KATRINA

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3357472

When Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters poured into the Gulf Coast —

saturating walls, shoes, sofas, floors and roofs — billions of

dormant mold spores woke up.

Now, fueled by moisture and temperature, those spores are growing

furiously.

For the buildings left standing by the winds and waters, for the

houses that escaped serious damage from the toxic soup of bacteria

and chemicals still sloshing in Katrina's wake, the next plague

coming, experts say, is mold.

" These are the most successful organisms on the Earth. ... They have

this amazing ability to survive, " said Rinaldi, director of

the Fungus Testing Laboratory and professor of pathology and

medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San

. " Many of those houses ... are going to have to be rebuilt. "

Mold is a type of fungus that can weaken buildings, make people sick

and streak walls.

While debate continues over how dangerous household molds may be,

people with allergies, asthma or weakened immune systems can suffer

severe respiratory problems when they breathe in spores. Some fungal

organisms feed on wood for their growth, leaving a gooey,

structurally unsound beam behind.

A boost in humidity

Residents in hot and humid New Orleans have long lived with the

creep of mold and fungus everywhere from bathrooms to barroom walls,

keeping it at bay with dehumidifiers, air conditioners and bleach.

But day-to-day humidity levels are not nearly as hospitable to mold

growth as the past two weeks have been. Most air conditioners and

dehumidifiers haven't been turned on since Katrina struck the Gulf

Coast on Aug. 29 — and the mold has kept multiplying.

Mold had already begun to spawn in Sandy Guild's spacious Gulfport,

Miss., home when she returned to it just days after the storm. In

each spot, the mold started out gray then turned black and spread

like a weed, she said. She and her family worked furiously to rip

out all the wallboard and insulation on the flooded first floor of

the house. She bleached her kitchen cabinets.

" I had to get it out, " said Guild, who owns a gift shop. " I feel

sorry for a lot of people who don't even have Sheetrock out by now, "

she added. " They are going to be in trouble. "

After floods, federal agencies often urge homeowners to strip homes

of wet carpets and furniture and dry the building out within 48

hours to stop mold infestation — but there are no guidelines for

what to do with a house that has been partly submerged for weeks.

" The problem we are wrestling with is even if we eliminate the

water ... there will still be moisture present because we don't have

air conditioning or a way to dry it out, " said McGinnis,

director of the Medical Mycology Research Center at the University

of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

" The mold will get into the cracks in the ceiling, behind the

paint, " McGinnis said. " It really creates difficulty because there

is going to be lots and lots of mold growing. "

Air currents carry spores

With enough moisture, mold spores can germinate in just hours and

begin eating wood, wallboard, wallpaper glues and other organic

material.

Within days, a few spores can produce millions more, which are then

carried to other locations by air currents. By the time mold is

visible — which can take from a day to several weeks after

germination — it often has taken root in walls and may be impossible

to get out.

Scientists worry many poor homeowners will spend tens of thousands

of dollars attempting to get rid of mold, only to find that their

efforts have failed.