 This is Ken Helibang, agricultural engineer with the NDSU Extension Service. And we're going to be doing a series of five short video clips related to flooded house cleanup. The first one is going to be on protection from hazards as you're going in and doing the cleanup. It's important that we be aware of what we're going to face and take appropriate protection so that we don't get hurt as we're doing that cleanup. It's important as we start into this process that we're aware that there are going to be companies that come in to help you do the cleanup. And it's critical that if you are going to utilize some of their services that you make sure that those contractors have the local licensing, bonding, insurance, training, and certifications that are required to do the work for you. Most of these companies are certainly legitimate companies that come in, but it is important to make sure that you verify with them that they have the appropriate credentials to be doing the work for you. As you get in and are making decisions about the cleanup, it's important to seek help. This is a task that we've never faced before, and it's important that we learn how to do it correctly and that if there are questions that we're seeking out, help. Not only help for the actual, you know, nuts and bolts part of doing the cleanup, but also there's a lot of financial and emotional aspects related to the flood cleanup. So it's important that we don't be making hasty decisions and that we work our way through the process. Really we need to be thinking of this as a marathon that's going to take us some time to get that home recovered for us. If we don't do the cleanup immediately, it's important that we take steps to try to minimize the amount of damage that will continue to occur in the home. One of the major issues that we're going to be facing is mold growth. With the moist conditions in the home, in the building, that warm, damp air is going to cause mold to grow extensively. It is shown on this right slide. And as we look here, you can see that there is mold that is occurring not only on the lower level where there might have been moisture, but throughout the structure. So it's critical that we try to do a drying out of the structure as quickly as we can. Also, when things are still damp, maybe we want to be looking at some major cleaning of some of the mold and muck that will come in as part of that flood event and try to move some of that away from the structure as much as we can while it is still wet. But do that initial assessment and determine really what it is that we're going to be tackling first and how we're going to proceed through the cleanup process. There's a lot of hazards associated with doing a cleanup in a home that has been flooded. And I've listed a number of them here. There's structural issues. We need to make sure that the floor is still sound, that it's not going to cave in underneath us as we come into the home. We need to be concerned about electricity, making sure that electricity is shut off so that we don't get electrical shocks or electrocution. There's also going to be some issues with related to telephone and cable. They're both carrying electricity as well and we need to be aware of that concern. Mold is a major health hazard in the home and we'll be focusing on that quite a bit. There's biological contamination. We'll have water that will be contaminated with sewage in many cases and we need to be making sure that we're protecting ourselves so that we don't end up with health problems as we're working in that flooded home. We have lead dust as a hazard. Lead was used in paint extensively before about 1975 and so it's important that if we're doing removal of painted surfaces that were painted before that, that we keep the surface wet and that we're not creating a dust that will create a lead hazard. Same thing is true with asbestos. If we have a boiler or some duct work that is insulated that has asbestos in it, tiles, again, be aware of that hazard. Make sure that we're using personal protective equipment and keeping that material wet. Carbon dioxide will be an issue and we'll touch on that in a car. It's just the normal cuts and punctures associated with working in these flooded homes. When we're dealing with flood water, they categorize flood water in different categories depending on what was in the water. A category one is clean water such as might come from a broken water pipe or rain water. Gray water or category two contains some contamination in microorganisms such as might come from a dishwasher, sump, pump, toilets with urine. Category three is water that contains pathogenic agents and that is sewage, surface water flooding. There might be pesticides in that. We really don't know what's in that water and that's really what we're looking at when we're doing a flood cleanup is a category three flood event and so we need to be using caution because of what might have been in that water. There are certainly health effects due to exposure to mold and I'm just going to read this right off of the slide. Scientific evidence links mold and other factors related to damp conditions and buildings to asthma symptoms and those with the chronic disorder. It doesn't cause asthma but if you have asthma, it's a trigger for asthma attacks. So those that have asthma or other respiratory problems really need to be very careful about working around flooded homes because of the mold exposure. Mold can cause coughing, wheezing and upper respiratory symptoms and otherwise healthy individuals. It can cause hypersensitivity, pneumonitis and susceptible people. Not something we'll typically see. This would be with people whose immunity is reduced for some major reason and then lower respiratory illness in children and so there are very documented health effects due to working in a moldy environment. The World Health Organization has also looked at a number of studies and determined that the evidence is available in different countries that show that occupants of damp or moldy buildings are at increased risk of respiratory problems. There's also clinical evidence that exposure to mold and other dampness related microbial agents increase the risk of various conditions such as sinus irritation, sinusitis and then also evidence that supports that there's diverse inflammatory reactions, things that can lead to infections. So it's critical that we take care as we're working in these mold infested environments to protect ourselves and to make sure that we are doing the cleanup properly so that we don't have future mold growth in our homes. One of the main things that we're going to do to provide protection for us is to wear a respirator or mask and the minimum that you should look for is on the mask it should say an N95 rating or a HEPA filter or a P or N100 indicating that it's going to be filtering out mold spores. We need to make sure that it has a proper fit and realize that there is going to be some labored breathing associated with breathing through that mask to help us overcome some of that labored breathing. There are some masks that have a valve in it that allow you to exhale through the valve and then as you inhale it comes through the mask and is filtered and I really strongly encourage you to be using respiratory protection whenever you're doing any of the flood cleanup. It's also important to use goggles to protect your eyes. You're going to be working in a very dirty environment so some type of coveralls are a good idea. Rubber gloves so you have protection for your feet, your hands, your whole body is protected as you're working in these homes. And then whenever we have a flood event it seems like there's a tendency for people to look for easy solutions, quick solutions to some of these problems that we'll be finding in our homes and it's important to realize that there's very limited benefit from air cleaners. Filters remove only some of the spores, do not remove the volatile organic compounds and so are only marginally beneficial. Units that produce ozone, many times it's referred to as kind of cleaning the air like rain, those units are not effective against mold and now there are hydroxyl units that are somewhat similar again. These may be effective but not in the environment that we'll typically be working in in our homes and so be very, very cautious about using any of these. We really need to focus on thorough cleaning of that home. So this has been that first segment of the flood cleanup presentation and we'll be looking now at the process or steps that we go through in the next segments.