Prep Your Health for Floods

road closed sign

March 14–20 is Flood Safety Awareness Week

Floods are the most widespread of all weather-related natural disasters. They happen in every U.S. state and territory.(1) Floodwater can be dangerous. It can contain different hazards that can harm your health and the health of others.

Here are some ways you can prepare for and respond to flooding.flood warnings

Know Your Risk

Flooding can happen year-round anywhere it rains.(1) If you live in a flood-prone area, you should prepare.

Use FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center to find your official flood map. You can also contact your local emergency management agency.

Use the information you gather to make an informed decision about how best to protect your finances and property.(2) Homeowners’ insurance policies do not cover flooding. A flood insurance policy typically takes up to 30 days to go into effect.

Prepare Yourself or Your Household

Planning for an emergency can give you and your family peace of mind. If the entire process seems too big, you can take small steps throughout the year.

  • Collect emergency supplies, including
    • personal items such as water, medications, and supplies for pets
    • personal protective equipment, including
      • an N-95 respirator
      • long pants or waders
      • rubber boots
      • rubber gloves
      • goggles (i.e., safety glasses)
    • insect repellent
    • cleaning supplies (Unscented household bleach can be used to disinfect surfaces, canned goods, and even water if bottled water is not available.)
  • Collect, check, and protect important paperwork, including homeowners or renters and flood insurance policy documents.
  • Stay informed of weather updates. Follow trusted sources of information on social media like your local National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office.

Along with preparing yourself for a flood, you should also take steps to get your home ready for a flood. This includes learning practical skills like how to turn off the utilities in case you must evacuate.

Protect Your Health

Floodwater can be dangerous. It can contain things that may harm health. We don’t know exactly what is in floodwater at any given point in time. Protect yourself and others from possible contaminants, chemical hazards, and objects.

  • Stay out of floodwater. Exposure to contaminated floodwater can cause wound infections, skin rash, gastrointestinal illness, tetanus, and other health problems. If you must enter floodwater, wear rubber boots, rubber gloves, and goggles.(3)
  • Don’t drive into flooded areas—turn around, don’t drown! Have an evacuation plan that gives you options in case a path is flooded.(3) A few inches of water can sweep a car away.
  • Prevent injuries. If you happen to have an open wound during a flood, make sure to avoid floodwater by keeping wounds clean and covered. (3)

Going home after a flood can present challenges, too. Here are some practical steps to take when you first reenter your home.

  • Throw out any food, including emergency supplies, that may have come into contact with floodwater. Discard canned foods that are bulging open, or damaged. Food in undamaged cans can be saved if properly cleaned.
  • Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents to protect yourself from mosquito bites. Immediately following a hurricane, flooding occurs. Mosquito eggs laid in the soil by floodwater mosquitoes during previous floods hatch. This results in very large populations of floodwater mosquitoes. Most of these mosquitoes are considered nuisance mosquitoes. In general, nuisance mosquitoes do not spread viruses that make people sick.(4)
  • Dry out your home to prevent mold. When returning to a home that has been flooded, be aware that mold growth may be present. Mold can be a health risk for your family. If possible, air out your house by opening doors and windows. Use fans to dry wet areas. Position fans to blow air out doors or windows. Use proper protective gear such as safety glasses, gloves, and N95 respirator when removing mold.(5)

Visit the CDC website for more information on what to do when reentering a flooded home.

References

  1. https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/floods/
  2. https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps
  3. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/floods/floodsafety.html
  4. https://www.cdc.gov/mosquitoes/mosquito-control/community/mosquitoes-and-hurricanes.html
  5. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/mold

Resources

 

Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.

Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.

After the Storm: Helping Kids Cope

A boy and his mother wait to cross the street on their way to school.

Changing schools is hard for any kid. Imagine picking up without any notice and moving to a new school in a brand new place with a different climate, culture, and maybe even a different primary language.  Harder still is the thought of moving because your home and community have been devastated by a major hurricane. The truth is, this is the reality for the tens of thousands of students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) who moved to the continental U.S. after Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria.

Recognizing a need

As a Massachusetts native, I subscribe to news alerts from the Boston area. One morning before heading to work in CDC’s Joint Information Center, I saw a news article about the influx of PuertoCDC's Joint Information Center (JIC): The JIC Outreach Team is responsible for reaching hard-to-reach and at-risk audiences with important health and safety information during and after a public health emergency. Rican children displaced by the hurricanes who were relocating to the cities of Springfield and Holyoke in western Massachusetts.  Both cities have large Puerto Rican populations, and many residents were taking in relatives and friends from the devastated island. Schools in the territories would be closed for months after the storm, so many families were coming to the continental U.S. so their kids could keep going to school.

Children who were displaced as a result of the hurricanes faced the challenges of leaving behind their homes, communities, and schools, family and friends, and even their pets.  Kids in middle and high school were old enough to understand the uncertainty facing their families. They had to stay strong to support their parents and siblings, while finding a routine at a new school and keeping up with their academics.

Understanding the issue

During my meeting with the Hurricane Emergency Response Communication Teams, I brought up the article I had read that morning. Dr. Melissa Mercado-Crespo, a behavioral health scientist at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, took a special interest in the well-being of the families who had been displaced by the hurricanes. Dr. Mercado serves on the StopBullying.gov Editorial Board, and grew up in Puerto Rico. Most of her family and loved ones still live there, and when the storms hit, her husband was deployed to the island with the U.S. Army Reserves.

In collaboration with the CDC At-Risk Task Force, Dr. Mercado and I reached out to federal and local partners to find out how many hurricane-displaced students from Puerto Rico and USVI had enrolled in the middle of the semester. Through media and local sources, we learned that most of the students had enrolled at schools in Florida and New York, as well as cities in western Massachusetts. The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York, confirmed our findings. They estimated that after September 20, 2017 – the day Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico – 10,324 Puerto Rican students enrolled in Florida schools. The Puerto Rico Department of Education reported that nearly 25,000 students have left the island and are no longer enrolled in the Puerto Rico public school system.

Taking action

My former colleagues in Boston put me in touch with José Claudio of the New North Citizens’ Council, a community organization that provides public and human services to residents in the Springfield area. He mentioned that many of the students were struggling to adapt to their new setting and that there were misunderstandings between the permanent students and their new peers. We wanted to provide teachers and youth organizations with tools and resources that could help make the transition easier for everyone.

To help address these challenges, we pulled together a list of resources to help teachers and youth organization leaders plan activities to prevent and reduce the emotional challenges new students may face and help them cope with the trauma following hurricanes. We published the list in a Spotlight issue of the CDC Emergency Partners Newsletter that was reviewed by CDC behavioral health experts and representatives from StopBullying.gov, SAMHSA, and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). The newsletter went out to partners, and we received positive feedback from teachers, school counselors, and organizations that serve Hispanic populations in the U.S.

The messaging needs and target audiences change before, during, and after every emergency. We identified a new target audience during the 2017 Hurricane Response – children from Puerto Rico and USVI who left their schools and homes behind after the storms. Our hope is this is the first step in concrete efforts to help ensure they are no longer left behind.

Learn more

Subscribe! CDC Emergency Partners Newsletter

Educating Children After Hurricane Maria

In September 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria roared through the Caribbean just 12 days apart. The schools on St. Croix and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) did not re-open until October 24. Teachers talked about how many of the books and materials in their classrooms were moldy and how teachers and staff had to help the janitorial staff clean up classrooms. Parents shared stories of their children coming home from school with mosquito bites all over their arms and legs. Schools could not always run the air-conditioning because they were operating using generators.

Finding a natural fit

As a team lead in the Division of Adolescent and School Health, I have expertise in how health departments and federal agencies should work with schools. So when I was deployed to support health communication activities in the US Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria, I offered to support the USVI Department of Health doing health communication outreach to schools. We worked quickly to connect with schools and distribute materials to students and their families about how to stay safe and healthy after a hurricane.

Making a vision a realityChildren are the key to primary prevention because they are the drivers of the health behaviors we hope to change. -Malaika Washington

I worked with Director of Public Relations, Nykole Tyson, at the USVI Department of Health and the USVI Department of Education to determine how many children were enrolled on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John and which educational materials from CDC to distribute. With support from the CDC Foundation, we printed and distributed flyer packets for over 16,000 K-12 students on the three islands to take home to their families. The packets contained CDC-developed materials about how to stay safe after a hurricane, including tips for food and water safety, how to prevent mosquito bites, the health risks from mold, how to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, and mental health. Since 35% of the children on St. Croix speak Spanish, we made the messages available in both English and Spanish.

Each child was also given a copy of the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold Activity Book as part of the flyer packet. Ready Wrigley is a series of CDC-developed activity books for children 5-9 years old and their families to help them talk about and prepare for emergencies. There are nine Ready Wrigley books that provide tips, activities and a story about disaster preparedness. The flooding and mold activity book talks specifically about safe mold clean-up after a flood and how kids should never touch mold and always tell a grown-up if they see mold.

Giving children a voice

Malaika Washington reading the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold activity book to students in USVI.
Sharing the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold activity book with students in USVI.

American Education Week takes place every November. The USVI Department of Education contacted Director Tyson and asked her to read to elementary school students on St. Croix. She asked me if I would like to join her visits to kindergarten and first grade classrooms. I jumped at the chance to interact with students in-person and suggested we read the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold Activity Book. I even colored the pictures in the book and completed the activities so the children could follow along. We shared the Ready Wrigley books with the teachers at each school we visited, giving teachers enough copies of the book for every student to take one home.

All of the students really wanted their stories heard. One first grader recounted how his mother and grandparents told him to stay far away from the cleaning products while they cleaned up the mold in their home. Another little girl shared how she was personally impacted by mold. She had to sleep on the sofa in her home because there was mold all over her bed and the other furniture in her bedroom. Several other children described the mold they found on the front door of their homes after the hurricane.

Fulfilling a passion

Working with school-aged children is so rewarding. This deployment experience was the best I could have hoped for. The time I spent in the USVI made me realize my personal and professional goal to provide public health education materials to children and their families. I have always believed that public health prevention work should begin with school-aged youth and it is my lifelong public health mission to ensure that they have a voice.

Malaika Washington has been a Commissioned Corps Officer in the United Stated Public Health Service since October 2009. She is a team lead in the Division of Adolescent and School Health, the only division at CDC that funds education agencies directly. Her deployment to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the 2017 HHS Hurricane Response was the first time she deployed for a public health emergency.

When We All Work Together, We’re Stronger Than Ever

Click the image to enjoy the full 360 experience on Facebook.

Atop the bloom of a clover, on the same speck of dust.

Lies a second small town; it exists without fuss.

Those who live in this place are prepped to the nines.

With emergency plans and kits of all kinds.

 

Take a look, for example, at their fight against flu.

They cover their coughs and every ah … ah … achoo!

The power of preparedness is strong with this lot.

Just look at the line for an annual flu shot.

 

Or imagine floodwaters sweep through downtown.

Homes are destroyed, possessions are drowned.

And just as survivors feel lonesome and stuck.

Neighbors show up to help throw out the muck.

 

From outbreaks and mold to extreme heat and cold.

Whole Community extends beyond the household.

There’s no “I” in TEAM for those who live there.

The work of preparedness is something they share.

Tips on Cleaning Mold After a Flood

Home with mold.

Mold inside home.Returning to your home after a flood is a big part of getting your life back to normal. But you may be facing a new challenge: mold. What can you do to get rid of it?  How do you get the mold out of your home and stay safe at the same time? CDC has investigated floods, mold, and cleanup, and offers practical tips for homeowners and others on how to safely and efficiently remove mold from the home.

In 2005, thousands of people along the Gulf Coast were faced with cleaning up mold from their homes after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One of our first concerns was to let homeowners and others know how they could clean up mold safely. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, we teamed up with other federal agencies to provide practical advice on mold cleanup. This guidance outlines what to do before and after going into a moldy building, how to decide if you can do the cleanup yourself or need to hire someone, and how you can do the cleanup safely.

Prepare to Clean Up

It isn’t necessary to identify the type of mold in your home, and CDC doesn’t recommend routine sampling for mold. If you are susceptible to mold, there may be a health risk; therefore, no matter what type of mold is present, it needs to be removed.

Before you start any cleanup work, call your insurance company and take pictures of the home and your belongings. Throw away, or at least move outside, anything that was wet with flood water and can’t be cleaned and dried completely within 24 to 48 hours. Remember – drying your home and removing water-damaged items is the most important step to prevent mold damage.8 Tips to Clean Up Mold

Protect Yourself

We offer specific recommendations for different groups of people and different cleanup activities. This guidance educates people about the type of protection (think: gloves, goggles, masks) you need for different parts of your mold cleanup. It also identifies groups of people who should and should not be doing cleanup activities.

Be Careful  With Bleach

Many people use bleach to clean up mold. If you decide to use bleach, use it safely by wearing gloves, a mask, and goggles to protect yourself. Remember these four tips to stay safe:

  • NEVER mix bleach with ammonia or any other cleaning product.
  • ALWAYS open windows and doors when using bleach, to let fumes escape.
  • NEVER use bleach straight from the bottle to clean surfaces. Use no more than 1 cup of bleach per 1 gallon of water when you’re cleaning up mold. If you are using stronger, professional strength bleach use less than 1 cup of bleach per gallon of water.
  • ALWAYS protect your mouth, nose, skin, and eyes against both mold and bleach with an N-95 mask, gloves, and goggles. You can buy an N-95 mask at home improvement and hardware stores.

You can take steps to keep yourself and others protected while cleaning up mold after a flood. Make sure to follow CDC’s recommendations so you can return home safely.

ResourcesHome with mold.

Microbe-themed art of the month: Seung-Hwan Oh portraits w/ mold

OK this is pretty cool (from a microbe-art-science point of view): An Artist Who Paints Portraits With Mold | WIRED.  Seung-Hwan Oh "had to set up a micro-fungus farm in his studio" and he puts film in a warm wet environment (note to self - there could be a new human microbiome aspect of this project depending on what warm wet environment is chosen) and sometimes seeds the system with some mold.  And then he lets nature do its work.

See more about his Impermanence works here. (Really - check out the works - they are wild).

At that site the work is described in the following way:
The visual result of the symbiosis between film matter and organic matter is the conceptual origin of this body of work. The process involves the cultivation of emulsion consuming microbes on a visual environment created through portraits and a physical environment composed of developed film immersed in water. As the microbes consume light-sensitive chemical over the course of months or years, the silver halides destabilize, obfuscating the legibility of foreground, background, and scale. This creates an aesthetic of entangled creation and destruction that inevitably is ephemeral, and results in complete disintegration of the film so that it can only be delicately digitized before it is consumed.
Also see his Tumbl page where one can find many other images like this one:


Hat tip to Kate Scow for posting about this on Facebook.