In cleanup after a flood, how to stay safe and healthy

Disaster workers in high heat, like that forecast in
Kentucky this week, take breaks and keep hydrated.

The extent of the devastation caused by the flooding in Eastern Kentucky is still not fully known, as the death toll is 37 and rising, but cleanup has begun even as search-and-rescue operations are still going on. That overlap, and the urgency that many feel in such situations, could create even more danger as people risk their safety and health in trying to recover.

"As people try to re-enter flood-damaged properties, the risk of serious injury and even death is high," Anna Goodman Hoover, an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, told Kentucky Health News. She shared a package of "vetted materials from various agencies and environmental/disaster organizations that provide safety information for re-entering, cleaning up, etc." and KHN published most of the list.

The material comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The college's Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health has put the material on a web page.