The next disaster: mold

October 12, 2005

asp

After a water disaster, mold is everywhere. It's disgusting, a

possible health hazard and costly to fix. The worst horror is that

you're probably not covered by your insurance.

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Diane Beauchamp knows she's among the lucky ones. After Hurricane

Katrina, her home in Ocean Springs, Miss., is still standing and

apparently wasn't flooded.

But it's covered in mold.

Rain seeped in through the wind-damaged roof and siding, Beauchamp

said. Then the moisture sat and " cooked " in humid 100-degree heat

for days, leading to mold growth in every room.

The mess Beauchamp found when she was finally able to return home

after a week was almost Technicolor: Black spores crept up the

walls. An ottoman, once dark green, had turned white with fuzzy

growth. Green splotches sprawled on a cream-colored sectional sofa.

Carpets that didn't even seem damp had mold growing in the padding

underneath, and Beauchamp isn't sure how much of the drywall can be

saved.

" It was really gross, " Beauchamp said. " In the bedrooms, it was also

on blankets on top of the beds, not just on stuff that was on the

floor. "

As bad as it was, Beauchamp said her mold growth couldn't hold a

candle to the damage suffered by homeowners whose houses were

actually flooded, where mold sprouted in a thick rug on nearly every

surface.

" I know I'm fortunate, " Beauchamp said, " but fixing it still

involves a lot of work. "

And it takes a lot of money, much of it likely to come out of her

own pocket.

Skyrocketing mold claims around the turn of the century led many

insurers to sharply limit or even eliminate coverage for fungus

growth, which has left many hurricane-afflicted homeowners on their

own in dealing with the moldy aftermath.

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