New threat on Kauai — mold — emerges after storm

Residents grappling with the devastating flooding on Kauai may have longer-term health problems from bacteria and toxic mold in water- damaged homes and other buildings in the aftermath of the storm.

The distressing situation on Kauai is like deja vu for Kapaa resident Betsy Anderson, whose Colorado home flooded after heavy rain in 2013, exposing her family to toxic mold. Several years earlier, her family “suffered permanent damage” from mold that grew following a water leak in her home in London, which resulted in muscle aches, weight gain and diminished mental clarity.

“I was different from that day on. I went from a perfectly normal person to having really extreme mold reactions and chemical sensitivities. It’s a terrible problem,” she said. “The symptoms build over time. Individually they do not sound as disturbing or debilitating as they are. Your brain doesn’t work right. You feel unwell and wrong. Maybe best described as it feels like you are being poisoned. Which you are.”

Mold typically starts to grow in water-damaged buildings within a day or two, Anderson said.

“Mold can be dangerous. People aren’t thinking about it now. Right now there’s such disaster, so many people lost their houses. A lot of people who didn’t lose their houses are relieved,” she added. “Everybody knows mold is bad but not many people know how bad it can be. While some people can live in mold and they’re fine, for some people it destroys them.”

Residents should be aware of the potential hazards of mold as well as contaminated water, said Myron Honda, supervisor for the state Department of Health Clean Water Branch monitoring section.

“You’re almost always going to have mold. Whether it’s toxic or not, that depends,” he said.

In addition, overflowing cesspools and sewage, pesticides, animal fecal matter, dead and decaying animals, and other pathogens and chemicals are often found in floodwaters.

“These are the things we warn people about when we post brown-water advisories. Now if it’s going through their house, the same hazards apply. It could be (a public health concern),” he said. “It’s mainly (of) higher risk to elderly people or very young infants or people with underlying immune diseases.”

University of Hawaii professor Yuanan Lu in the Department of Public Health said residents exposed to floodwaters should immediately shower, wash contaminated clothes and see a doctor to make sure they don’t have any infections.

“It’s most important to keep away from the source, then have people clean the house, keep the house dry and remove the moisture,” he said. “Moisture is very important for the mold. If you have sewage contamination you have to be very careful. Most problems come from human sewage. There are certain water- borne diseases and food-borne diseases if there’s sewage contamination.”

The real risk is hidden mold that people don’t know is in their house, Anderson said.

“I’m like the nightmare of what can happen to your health if you had mold in your house. Not only mold, but bacteria from the floodwaters. There are people, sadly, who will be worse off from buildings that survived the floods,” she said. “This is why I think a warning now — people should be aware as they work to save flood wrecked homes — that there are dangers in materials that have been wet for sustained time and especially mold that may grow where they can’t see it.”