OPINION
DOCTORS' Lounge
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FIRST THE FLOOD, Then The Fungi
T
Mary G. Barry, MD
Louisville Medicine Editor
[email protected]
he people of Houston and sur-
rounding counties in Texas and
Louisiana have had it up to here
– and way past – with floodwa-
ters. After Hurricane Harvey
brought the worst rainstorm in U.S. history,
they’ve had it past the roofs. They’ve been
submerged in garages, sucked into storm
sewers, sunk in their cars, and drowned
in the surges. At least 70 have died, and
officials expect the final tally from the flood
itself to rise. In contrast, Hurricane Katrina
directly killed about 2,000 people with the
sudden flooding over the levees. But Harvey
developed over days of rain, and happened
to leave large parts of Houston still without
power, with cell networks bolstered by the
phone companies. Those networks and their
smartphones were lifelines for the vast “Tex-
as Armada” and “Cajun Navy” of rescuers.
As I write this, Hurricane Irma has bull-
dozed entire Caribbean islands including
the U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbuda, the
latter essentially destroyed. She has ravaged
Cuba and flooded Florida and blown the
Keys into the sea. And in her wake comes
Hurricane Jose, said to be pointing straight
at New York and New Jersey, where poorer
neighborhoods still bear the scars of Hur-
ricane Sandy.
The floodwaters carried all sorts of toxins
into buildings. Tetanus, typhoid, Vibrio,
fecal bacteria and enteroviruses traveled
with the deluge. After Katrina, the rate of
West Nile viral infections doubled, and the
victims of these hurricanes will face the
evils of Zika and dengue fever as well. Cases
of TB spiked after Katrina. Some authors
believe the Katrina death toll to be closer
to 4,000, since the very poor and aged died
of illness in the aftermath, and had never
been counted by the authorities as casualties
to begin with.
Industrial pollutants are a particular
problem for the survivors of Harvey. They
live in an area dominated by chemical plants
and refineries. Already, the carcinogen ben-
zene has been detected in high concentra-
tions near one plant. According to the New
York Times, along the 20 miles of coastline
between Corpus Christi and Port Arthur,
more than 4.6 million pounds of harmful
chemical emissions were released. The dam-
age to a Valero refinery released large quan-
tities of benzene and butadiene, compounds
that humans should not be breathing. There
are 14 Superfund toxic waste sites flooded
and disrupted by Harvey, and the long-term
effects of this huge splash of industrial tox-
ins into the groundwater, and into the food
chains, cannot now be determined.
Some petrochemical plants have had ex-
plosions of organic peroxides, which can
linger in water. Biological pollutants from
dead animals, birds and fish have also fouled
the waters. Huge clusters of floating fire ants
have been a nasty hazard to rescuers and
victims alike. Alligators and snakes were
swimming through the floods, but no deaths
from either were reported.
In Channelview, Texas, east of Houston,
a man found hundreds of globules of liquid
mercury with his bare feet. Luckily, a civil
engineer had come by and could identify
these before the man was heavily exposed.
No one knows exactly where it came from.
The most common and longest lasting
health hazard is the mold that grows on
virtually every surface in the flooded build-
ings. In the hot and humid South, it grows
exponentially. Immediately after the floods
from Harvey, public health authorities be-
gan to get airtime on news broadcasts to
teach people about proper mold removal,
which is mandatory for good health. (Throw
away everything wet – everything, the walls
included - and scour the remaining clean-
able surfaces with bleach. Repeat.) One of
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