Hurricane Ike victims battle mold outbreak

GALVESTON, Texas, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- The Galveston, Texas, survivors of Hurricane Ike say they are facing a new problem as they try to reconstruct their lives -- rampant mold.

Mold is becoming endemic in water-damaged buildings in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast city. It is thriving in damp, hot buildings whose doors and windows have been sealed for nearly two weeks, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.

The new health hazard is being confronted by Galveston residents and business owners who last week were allowed to return to their properties for the first time since the Sept. 13 hurricane. Many of them say they are baffled at how to fight the mold.

At one grocery store, the owners' family put on respirator masks, rubber boots and gloves and plastic jumpsuits to attack the multi-colored mold spores as well mildew and flies that overran the flooded building.

"You don't know how far the mold goes," medical student Doug Heiner, 26, told the Chronicle as he cleaned his 1960s rambler, whose front yard was littered was discarded chairs and shelving. "I thought, with some of the furniture, you'd be able to wipe it off."