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Hurricane Ike: Clean with Caution

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Written by Lloyds Apple

Tuesday, September 2008

Hurricane Ike has swept through the Gulf Coast and as expected, many businesses and homes were destroyed. This was foreseen in the days leading up to Ike�s landfall but the true cost in terms of loss of natural resources, wildlife and human life is hard to measure.

As the Atlantic Ocean continues to warm up hurricanes are becoming more frequent and powerful. While the threat of terrorism is resulting in billions of dollars spent towards a variety of wars, it is becoming increasingly evident that American citizens need to wake up to natural disasters on our homeland and step up to help those in need, regardless of what actions the government does or does not take.

Action is crucial in times like these but it�s vital to do things the safest way possible because sometimes people can make a situation worse. Here are some ways to best clean up Texas in the aftermath of hurricane Ike and what dangers to look out for.

Check your home�s exterior and hose down debris and mud left by floodwater. Beware of interior doors that stick because it could indicate a ceiling ready to fall.
Use fans, dehumidifiers and products such as calcium chloride pellets and cat litter to get rid of excess moisture.
Remove wet wallpaper - damp wallpaper paste is a prime location for mold to grow.
Ask a contractor or building inspector to check for mold damage after a flood.
Scrub all interior surfaces that were in contact with floodwaters with bleach or a household disinfectant containing bleach
If a house is destroyed, partially torn down or will need to be torn down, make sure your home is properly inspected for asbestos. Once old asbestos is exposed, it can lead to breathing problems and even a deadly cancer known as mesothelioma.(read more)

Chemically Tainted Grounds
Environmental concerns are important for those looking to restore their cities back to the way they remember. From this standpoint, Hurricane Ike will have a long lasting impact, as raw sewage, industrial waste and oil spills will find their way into the soil and public water resources.

If Hurricane Katrina taught us anything, it is that environmental hazards and human protection often relate in many ways even if handled as separate issues. There were thousands of empty hazardous waste containers amidst the rubble and now way to track the owners of these spilled chemicals. This helped result in dangerously high levels of lead, chromium, arsenic and E. Coli bacteria. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found over 100 chemical pollutants in the soil and groundwater in the areas flooded by Katrina. Even long-forgotten chemical wastes, which were buried, were flooded out and probably were released.

Now it is up to the EPA to identify to hundreds of recorded spills within the hundreds of facilities that manage these wastes.� Public drinking water could be contaminated with a variety of pollutants such as phenol, vinyle choride and pyrene.

It is critical that the EPA acts quickly in identifying potential hazards. It is also critical that when people clean up their respective �messes�, that they are aware what to look out for and how to best clean up what Hurricane Ike left behind; devastation.