"Mold in homes is a costly crisis that often accompanies hurricanes and flooding, and climate change is amplifying the rain that feeds outbreaks."
"On Tuesday morning, six days after Hurricane Ian tore through southwestern Florida, Alvaro “Moe” Zuluaga and his team of mold remediators walked through a house in Naples. The walls were cheerfully painted in sunny yellows and palm greens, and beyond a suspiciously musty smell there was little immediate sign that just days before, the entire home had been sitting in a foot of floodwater.
But on closer inspection, the baseboards were swollen. And there was a visible patch of mold in a single shoe.
“If you don’t act right away, the mold will cover everything,” he said.
In 20 years as a mold remediator in South Florida, Mr. Zuluaga has seen many houses where people didn’t act, and mold choked the houses from top to floor, settling on clothing and bedding and spreading through ductwork."
Winston Choi-Schagrin reports for the New York Times with photographs by Emily Kask October 4, 2022.
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