Avoiding the extended dangers of post-Harvey flooding

Update 1 of 1: 8/31/17 at 5:17 p.m. This news release from Texas A&M discusses the fecal coliform (i.e bacteria typically found in human feces) contamination of Harvey's stormwater.  

Next time I'll return to writing about my first trimester highlights and challenges, but today I wanted to take some time to reflect on the awful tragedy of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey. As one of the many states in which I have resided, and still have family and friends, TX will always be near and dear to me. It's devastating to see the aftermath of Harvey, but it's also very heartwarming to see all of the positive stories of first responders, and everyday people helping each other. Here's a link to a good NPR article that lists a number of organizations where you can donate supplies for those in the affected area. I'm planning to donate supplies for infants and new moms.  I already had planned to donate such items to my local Salvation Army, but now I'll just send them to TX.  I have lots of new and very gently used baby clothes, diapers, etc., that my Superman of a son has already outgrown.  I can't begin to imagine how stressful it is for all of those new and expectant moms in the southern TX right now.

As a microbiologist, one really important thing I wanted to reiterate, is that, as much as possible, people should try to avoid exposure to the flood waters in the coming days and weeks.  I've seen news stories of children and adults splashing and voluntarily submerging themselves in the storm water. I know that it's a stressful time, and one way to try to help children cope--or for adults to cope--might be to do something "fun" like splash around and make the most of being surrounded by all that water.  However, it's extremely important to remember that all the flooding will include flooding of sewers, meat processing facilities, and other potentially hazardous sites such as municipal trash facilities.  In the coming days there will no doubt be serious issues with decomposing organic material, that may include large animals, and sadly even humans whose bodies have not yet been located.  As a result, the pathogen/potential pathogen load in the flood water will increase. Even wading in the water may prove to be harmful, especially if one has cuts and abrasions that may be exposed to harmful bacteria, viruses and fungi.  Added to these biological hazards are the potential chemical hazards from flooded petrochemical processing plants, service stations, hospitals, morgues, hardware stores, and other chemical manufacturers and suppliers.  Just this morning the Arkema, Inc. chemical plant exploded near to Houston.
  
I remember 12 years ago during the Katrina search and rescue operations a colleague whose family member was a first responder in the area recounted how they were rescuing some victims who had been in the flood waters for extended periods of time, and had severe skin rashes [due to infections]. More important than the infrastructure clean-up and repair that has already begun, it will be so important for those in the affected areas to keep themselves as healthy as possible. One way to do this is to limit exposure to flood waters so as to avoid the many pathogenic and chemical contaminants that will remain in the flood water long after Harvey is gone. Keeping kids away from the water will be a challenge, but it's something that all parents in the affected area should try to do for the next few weeks/months.