NCHH30 Throwback Thursday
Week 32: January 5, 2023
by Christopher Bloom
NCHH turned THIRTY this year, so we’re celebrating with a new “Throwback Thursday” photo each week.
In our first throwback of the new year, we recall Jonathan Wilson’s trip to New Orleans in December 2005. Jonathan visited New Orleans as part of NCHH’s study of the effectiveness of flood/mold cleanup in the aftermath of the substantial flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina. Look in the background of this photo (taken December 22, roughly four months after the storm) and you’ll note mold growth both on the wall and reflected in the mirror, which is why Jonathan’s bundled up so securely in his personal protective equipment (PPE)—you really can’t be too careful when working with mold, a point we stressed in Creating a Healthy Home, the how-to guide we published in 2006 with our friends at Enterprise Community Partners, NeighborWorks America, and Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans.
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Creating a Healthy Home proved to be an extremely popular and necessary resource: By early 2008, we’d shipped our entire inventory to communities around the country in the aftermath of various storms and printed a second batch for communities in need. New editions of the flood cleanup guide—now called A Field Guide for Flooded Home Cleanup and it’s Spanish-language counterpart, Guía Práctica para la Limpieza del Hogar Inundado—were introduced in 2019 to incorporate the latest safe cleanup practices. We also created a new e-learning course, Safe Cleanup of Your Flood Damaged Home as another way to share this important information.
We do hope you’ll take a moment to download your copy of the flood cleanup guide. While the guide was written with major storms in mind, it’s loaded with information that would be helpful in the event of a smaller disaster, such as a burst pipe. Like insurance, you don’t need it until you need it, but unlike insurance, it’s free.
If you’re interested in learning more about our work in Louisiana, be sure to check out “Mold and Endotoxin Levels in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: A Pilot Project of Homes in New Orleans Undergoing Renovation.” Jonathan and NCHH’s Rebecca Morley contributed to the article.
On a related note, our team recently invested a considerable amount of time creating and curating additional resources related to hurricanes and other climate-related disasters. You’ll find a wealth of information to protect yourself and others before, during, and after hurricanes and other similar disasters at Emergency Preparedness and Response: Hurricanes.
Hurricane season doesn’t officially begin until April, but flooding is a potential threat all year round, and any home anywhere can be affected.
Bundled in personal protective equipment, Jonathan Wilson visited New Orleans in December 2005 to study the effectiveness of flood and mold cleanup in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
See You Next Week
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this throwback in honor of our 30th anniversary. Remember that we’ll post a new throwback every Thursday morning at 9:04 a.m. on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter through May 25, 2023. If you’ve missed a previous post, you can always reminisce with us via our NCHH30 gallery.
Christopher Bloom is NCHH’s communications and marketing manager. He joined NCHH in 2008 after nearly a decade in the real estate industry. In a previous role at NCHH, he coordinated a national Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) training program, one of the most successful in the nation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Textual Studies from Syracuse University.