Media Release

CONTACT: Robert Marshall, PhD, Assistant Director of Health, 401-222-1017
FOR: Immediate Release
DATE: April 3, 2001

Consumer HEALTH Information on Cleaning Up After the Floods

In the aftermath of recent rains, many RI residents are struggling to respond to flooding problems. Problems range from wet basement floors to sewage back-ups. The RI Department of Health website now features a listing of helpful resources entitled "Indoor Air Quality: Mold, Mildew, Fungus & Other Indoor Air Quality Problem" found at

http://www.health.state.ri.us/environment/air/links.htm

The section entitled Getting Rid of Mold/Mildew- Water/Flood Damage features the following links:

• EPA's Flood Cleanup: Avoiding Indoor Air Quality Problems http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/flood.html

• Carpet and Rug Institute's Care and Cleaning of Water-Damaged Carpet
  

Other resources not directly linked to the HEALTH website include:

• a 2 page document (pdf format) from FEMA/Red Cross entitled After a Flood - The First Steps. The URL for this document is: http://www.fema.gov/library/fststpbr.pdf

• a 56 page document (pdf format) from FEMA/Red Cross entitled Repairing Your Flooded Home. The URL for this document is: http://www.fema.gov/library/repfhm.pdf

You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader® to view or download the above documents.

The HEALTH Indoor Air Quality web page also includes a number of "hot linked" articles from that deal with various aspects of recovery from flood damage.

For local RI Red Cross Information go to www.riredcross.org