Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Aftermath Of Isabel May Leave Harmful Mold In Many Homes

Aired September 20, 2003 - 14:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: To the lingering effects now of Hurricane Isabel. Power outages are reported in Virginia, as well as six other states and the District of Columbia. Hundreds of Virginia roads were still blocked by debris this morning. Two tunnels were also closed.
North Carolina suffered the brunt of storm, though, which ripped roofs and smashed at least six homes. The storm being blamed for at least 29 deaths. Insurance claims are expected to climb close to $1 billion.

Well, Baltimore braced for the worst, and the city's mayor there says that's exactly what it got. That is where CNN's Kathleen Koch is standing by live this afternoon.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. They're calling it the storm of century here in Baltimore. We're standing right now in Fells Point, the oldest neighborhood in the city. And believe it or not, some 36 hours ago this entire area was under water.

It was about 2:00 a.m. on Friday when the storm surge from Isabel came in just as high tide was hitting here. And it pushed the water into businesses, into homes, until it was seven feet above normal. Now, that meant in neighborhoods just to the east of here, many of these waterfront neighborhoods, entire communities like Essex and Dundalk, hundreds and hundreds of people had to be rescued, evacuated by boat, put on buses, taken to shelters. And many neighbors say that this unprecedented flooding, which broke all records, caught them by surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw half the pier floating down this way with all of the planks and boards and stuff like that. They had dumpsters rolling down the street. I had to climb over my roof of my car and inside my car to get it off the street, or else I was going to get washed away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, today there are several feet of water in many businesses and basements. They say they have pumps going, trying to get that water out of there, doing cleanup on main levels, too. Same thing going on in homes throughout this neighborhood. And people really doing their best to clean up. We see people walking by us, Heidi, right now, with these enormous kits. As you can see, it says, "cleanup kit." These are being passed out by the Salvation Army. They're also walking by with boxes, carrying buckets with ice, because very little power in this neighborhood and not much dry ice to come by. But the Salvation Army and lots of other organizations are kicking in to help everyone out and recover.

Back to you.

COLLINS: Wow. Certainly a lot of cleanup to be going on there and many other parts after all of this. Kathleen Koch, at Fells Point, thanks so very much. Appreciate it.

And speaking of cleanup kits, some expert advice now. If you are one of the millions of home owners facing storm cleanup, Jeffrey May is an air quality investigator. He wrote the book "My House is Killing Me. He joins us with insights on all of this.

Good afternoon to you, Mr. May. I appreciate you being here. What is the most common mistake people make in storm cleanup like this?

JEFFREY MAY, "MY HOUSE IS KILLING ME": Good afternoon, Heidi. Well, probably not going far enough. Leaving things wet, not looking in every place where they could possibly look.

COLLINS: What do you mean by that? You know, you go in, you clean up the water the best you can, and then you have to check elsewhere?

MAY: Yes. I think one of the -- for example, one of the places where you could have problems, if you have a heating system, hot air heat, or an air conditioning system or a heat pump, any of that equipment is in the basement. People might forget once the water's gone that there's actually -- there's a lot of water inside, and that can get very, very moldy.

My sort of -- the big premise in the book, really, is that what you can't see can really affect you. And so the key thing is to really get rid of everything that's wet. In fact, the best thing is probably to take everything out of the basement and let it dry outside, because the more moisture you have in the basement, the harder it is to actually dry the physical basement, the walls and the floor.

COLLINS: So we are talking about mold. We're talking about the walls and the insulation and all of that. What sort of dangers are we facing with this mold?

MAY: Well, the problem is, it's particularly unsafe for families where you have a lot of asthma and allergies. So some of what I say would obviously be directed to those folks. So if -- where you have the potential for a lot of mold growth -- and it can happen, really, within 48 hours -- and you disturb these things while you're cleaning down there, you can get a lot of spores in the air and people can really suffer. And even people who don't necessarily have allergies can suffer from exposure to large amounts of mold.

It's particularly a problem -- let's say if somebody has a basement, where they've had a water problem previously, there may be a lot of mold. And now they're moving all these things around. So actually, I recommend people wear a mask.

This is a NIOSH N95 mask, and it's got two straps. Most kinds of masks, they just have a single strap, they're not adequate. And that will really protect somebody. So that's one important thing for protection.

Another is to keep the door shut upstairs. I know a lot of people are going to be cleaning up the basement, going up and down quite a bit. If possible doing -- disturbing things, if you keep that basement door shut, that will minimizes some of the dust, if there is any, from getting upstairs.

COLLINS: All right. Mr. May, we certainly appreciate you being here with us today. Certainly a timely book. If people are interested in reading it, "My House is Killing Me," some great advice about how to clean up after a storm like this and the dangers that you can breathe in, quite frankly, if mold does develop in your home.

Once again, the book is called "My House is Killing Me." Jeffrey May, appreciate it.

MAY: Thanks, Heidi.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 20, 2003 - 14:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: To the lingering effects now of Hurricane Isabel. Power outages are reported in Virginia, as well as six other states and the District of Columbia. Hundreds of Virginia roads were still blocked by debris this morning. Two tunnels were also closed.
North Carolina suffered the brunt of storm, though, which ripped roofs and smashed at least six homes. The storm being blamed for at least 29 deaths. Insurance claims are expected to climb close to $1 billion.

Well, Baltimore braced for the worst, and the city's mayor there says that's exactly what it got. That is where CNN's Kathleen Koch is standing by live this afternoon.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. They're calling it the storm of century here in Baltimore. We're standing right now in Fells Point, the oldest neighborhood in the city. And believe it or not, some 36 hours ago this entire area was under water.

It was about 2:00 a.m. on Friday when the storm surge from Isabel came in just as high tide was hitting here. And it pushed the water into businesses, into homes, until it was seven feet above normal. Now, that meant in neighborhoods just to the east of here, many of these waterfront neighborhoods, entire communities like Essex and Dundalk, hundreds and hundreds of people had to be rescued, evacuated by boat, put on buses, taken to shelters. And many neighbors say that this unprecedented flooding, which broke all records, caught them by surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw half the pier floating down this way with all of the planks and boards and stuff like that. They had dumpsters rolling down the street. I had to climb over my roof of my car and inside my car to get it off the street, or else I was going to get washed away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, today there are several feet of water in many businesses and basements. They say they have pumps going, trying to get that water out of there, doing cleanup on main levels, too. Same thing going on in homes throughout this neighborhood. And people really doing their best to clean up. We see people walking by us, Heidi, right now, with these enormous kits. As you can see, it says, "cleanup kit." These are being passed out by the Salvation Army. They're also walking by with boxes, carrying buckets with ice, because very little power in this neighborhood and not much dry ice to come by. But the Salvation Army and lots of other organizations are kicking in to help everyone out and recover.

Back to you.

COLLINS: Wow. Certainly a lot of cleanup to be going on there and many other parts after all of this. Kathleen Koch, at Fells Point, thanks so very much. Appreciate it.

And speaking of cleanup kits, some expert advice now. If you are one of the millions of home owners facing storm cleanup, Jeffrey May is an air quality investigator. He wrote the book "My House is Killing Me. He joins us with insights on all of this.

Good afternoon to you, Mr. May. I appreciate you being here. What is the most common mistake people make in storm cleanup like this?

JEFFREY MAY, "MY HOUSE IS KILLING ME": Good afternoon, Heidi. Well, probably not going far enough. Leaving things wet, not looking in every place where they could possibly look.

COLLINS: What do you mean by that? You know, you go in, you clean up the water the best you can, and then you have to check elsewhere?

MAY: Yes. I think one of the -- for example, one of the places where you could have problems, if you have a heating system, hot air heat, or an air conditioning system or a heat pump, any of that equipment is in the basement. People might forget once the water's gone that there's actually -- there's a lot of water inside, and that can get very, very moldy.

My sort of -- the big premise in the book, really, is that what you can't see can really affect you. And so the key thing is to really get rid of everything that's wet. In fact, the best thing is probably to take everything out of the basement and let it dry outside, because the more moisture you have in the basement, the harder it is to actually dry the physical basement, the walls and the floor.

COLLINS: So we are talking about mold. We're talking about the walls and the insulation and all of that. What sort of dangers are we facing with this mold?

MAY: Well, the problem is, it's particularly unsafe for families where you have a lot of asthma and allergies. So some of what I say would obviously be directed to those folks. So if -- where you have the potential for a lot of mold growth -- and it can happen, really, within 48 hours -- and you disturb these things while you're cleaning down there, you can get a lot of spores in the air and people can really suffer. And even people who don't necessarily have allergies can suffer from exposure to large amounts of mold.

It's particularly a problem -- let's say if somebody has a basement, where they've had a water problem previously, there may be a lot of mold. And now they're moving all these things around. So actually, I recommend people wear a mask.

This is a NIOSH N95 mask, and it's got two straps. Most kinds of masks, they just have a single strap, they're not adequate. And that will really protect somebody. So that's one important thing for protection.

Another is to keep the door shut upstairs. I know a lot of people are going to be cleaning up the basement, going up and down quite a bit. If possible doing -- disturbing things, if you keep that basement door shut, that will minimizes some of the dust, if there is any, from getting upstairs.

COLLINS: All right. Mr. May, we certainly appreciate you being here with us today. Certainly a timely book. If people are interested in reading it, "My House is Killing Me," some great advice about how to clean up after a storm like this and the dangers that you can breathe in, quite frankly, if mold does develop in your home.

Once again, the book is called "My House is Killing Me." Jeffrey May, appreciate it.

MAY: Thanks, Heidi.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com