Will New Orleans have to be bulldozed??

[Francine Frensky]

Seriously, will EVERY flooded house have to be destroyed??

Anyone with experience in flooding, jump in....it looks to me like you have this disgustingly polluted water, soaking everything, fifteen feet deep, in 90 degree heat, and then given the large size of the flooded area, I would think toxic mold would grow quickly even when the city does drain, there's just NO WAY physically possible to clean up each house individually....

What's the time frame on a flooded house needing to be gutted/cleaned out before toxic mold destroys the whole thing?

[tk2kewl]

1. it is not looking good...

i also wonder about the stability of the underlying soil if they don't get that water out of there soon. foundations of the structures are going to be compromised

[bleedingheart]

3. that is the key problem, if the water sits too long it may cause more

damage that can't be repaired.

[bleedingheart]

2. My grandmother's house flooded and it was not bulldozed

after the water receded it was inspected to see if it should be inhabited again and when it was okayed for use...it was hosed out to pressure wash out the dirt first and tear out the carpeting and throw out all furniture and fabrics that could not be washed (like couches that were soaked through)

Then they started to disinfect and repair.

[Francine Frensky]

6. That sounds like a lot of work, what I'm wondering

is if it would be possible to do that for EVERY house when you're talking about maybe, what, 100,000 houses with flood damage?? That seems very labor intensive, and it seems like it would be logistically impossible to get to ALL the houses before they are destroyed.

[bleedingheart]

10. that is going to have to be a decision for the local authorities

to decide.

[Jersey Devil]

11. Labor intensive would be good = jobs

When the floods are gone they will need jobs to keep those peoples' families eating.

[nonconformist]

4. I think it would depend on how long NO is submerged.

If it's weeks, or even months... sadly, I think it will be a total loss.

[ClintonTyree]

5. Yes.....

toxic mold will have inundated avery structure by the time they get the City drained. Everything will have to be bulldozed, then burned or buried. Structurally, some homes may be alright to live in, but the toxins floating around in that soup and the black mold will take over very shortly making everything unlivable.

[RummyTheDummy]

9. That's false

Not every home with toxic mold has to be bulldozed. Look in your yellow pages. There are plenty of companies that specialize in mold removal. It's not a death sentence for a home. Now scarcity of such services is an issue.

[politicaholic]

7. New Orleans had a termite epidemic prior to the hurricane...

Even if a lot of the wood buildings did survive, there are estimates that more than 70% of wood buildings had some form of termite infestation.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/02/22/coolsc.termites.neworleans/

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

8. Or set on fire.

My father-in-law grew up in coal camp in West Virginia and it was flooded in the 1920's. They burned the houses down with everything in them. He still lost three siblings to typhoid.