After the Storm, the Mold: Warming Is Worsening Another Costly Disaster
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/climate/hurricane-ian-mold-home-remediation.html
By Winston Choi-Schagrin, Photographs by Emily Kask, The New York Times.
Excerpt: Mold may be one of the most devastating, long-term and hidden costs of America’s increasingly humid, wet and stormy climate. And while the extent of America’s mold problem is difficult to assess, there is consensus that climate change and more intense heat, rainfall and flooding — three key ingredients in a mold outbreak — are heightening the risk. There is relatively little publicly available data around mold rates, although there is robust scientific data that mold poses serious health risks from inhaling spores in the air. In an acknowledgment of the growing danger, last year the Federal Emergency Management Agency expanded their disaster-aid assistance to cover mold growth. Since the start of the program it has already paid out $142.9 million to 95,000 households, and that was before Hurricanes Fiona and Ian struck.…