USA today: Mold can cause cancer and liver damage

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Mold overtakes flooded city in a foul flourish

By Oren Dorell, and Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY

NEW ORLEANS — A throng of visitors has invaded the French Quarter, but they

aren't

tourists.

Mold grows in a New Orleans house. The owners have hired a work crew to rip

out the floorboard and walls on the entire first floor.

By Coburn Dukehart, USA TODAY

They're mold spores, and they're taking hold and growing furiously everywhere.

On anti-

ques in shuttered shops. On the white tablecloths of empty cafes and

restaurants. On the

walls and furnishings of boutique hotels. On the green-spiked Cole Haan high

heels and

alligator pumps in a Canal Street department store window.

At the Hotel Provincial on Rue Chartres, which advertises " the grace and charm

of old

world elegance, " gray mold has invaded about 50 rooms. It is growing on the claw

legs of

anti-que tables and on the gilt frames of mirrors and art prints.

" It's starting in the rooms that weren't even damaged now, " said Boswell,

owner of

Stella restaurant across the courtyard from the hotel, as he led a tour.

More than three weeks after Hurricane Katrina flooded much of this city,

residents and

business owners face another insidious calamity. Hot, humid New Orleans has

become a

giant mold factory.

" Mold is literally growing all over the city right now, " said Carl Clayton, a

New Orleans

developer.

'No way to stop it'

Even homes spared from high water are at risk after three weeks with no air

conditioning,

Clayton said. And the longer residents are barred from returning, the more their

homes

will decay.

" Some of these houses are going to have black mold growing up the walls and over

the

ceiling, and there's no way to stop it, " he said. " It will eat up the drywall

and destroy it. ...

At some point, even the houses that could be saved will have to be torn down. "

If residents and business owners in the Big Easy haven't learned already, they

will find that

getting rid of the furry stuff eating away at their wallboard and furnishings is

labor-

intensive, costly and sometimes a health threat.

" It's going to be a huge problem, " said King, a technical adviser to the

Association

of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration, a land-based trade group for

restoration

contractors.

" Mold spores are everywhere, " said Claudette Reichel, a professor and housing

specialist at

Louisiana State University's AgCenter. " They are nature's recyclers. They break

down

materials like trees and plants and organic matter. "

Dave , co-founder of K2 Environmental, a California company that

specializes in

repairing flood and mold damage, said houses with serious mold problems

essentially

must be stripped down to the framing. Wallboard, linoleum and insulation must be

disposed of, along with furnishings such as rugs, drapes and bedding — almost

everything

that got wet or even damp.

Once a badly damaged house is stripped to the studs and other framing materials,

the

wood must be sanded and then disinfected with a bleach solution to kill

remaining spores.

Then the house must be thoroughly dried with fans or de-humidifiers. " It's

basically

rebuilding the house from the inside, " said.

Some efforts will fall short. Anu Dixit, an assistant professor at the Saint

Louis University

School of Public Health, studied molds after Missouri River flooding. She found

that mold

returns in about one-third of affected houses, even after treatments.

" People with allergies and asthma should not be involved in cleanup, and anyone

whose

immune system is compromised, " Reichel warned. Some molds produce toxins that

can

cause serious health problems, including liver damage and cancer.

In New Orleans' Carrollton neighborhood, mold has climbed to shoulder height in

the

house where brothers Karry and Felton Crowley grew up. The mold has formed

felt-like

blooms on clothing, furniture and nearly everything else up to 5 feet off the

floor.

" Anytime you have sewage back up into your house and then sitting there for

days, you

got bacteria and mold growing all in there, " said Karry Crowley, 48, who works

in the

engineering department for the New Orleans Public Library.

Tearing out

Henry St. Amank, who owns Saint Construction in nearby Metairie, cleaned out a

lawyer's

office in the Mid-City area, where the water left a mark 2 feet up the inside

walls. St.

Amank started four days ago, but the mold had already traveled to 4 feet high.

St. Amank and his crew ripped out the carpet, baseboards, doors and trim and

marked the

lower 4 feet of drywall for removal. They will soak the exposed framing with a

mold-killing

solution and allow it to dry before completing the repairs, which will take six

weeks and

cost about $25,000.

At American Fashions Mens Wear, contractor Hocutt of Decatur Holdings

positioned a 4-foot fan in the doorway and hauled out display cases and trash

bags filled

with soggy, mildewed merchandise. " I've been remodeling houses for 20 years, and

this is

the worst I've ever seen, " he said.

Contributing: and Dorell reported from New Orleans; Kenworthy from Denver

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