Big Easy Fighting Epic Battle Against Mold

By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - The Longue Vue estate, with its English furnishings, Turkish rugs, blown-glass chandeliers and oil paintings, is on life support. Hundreds of yards of air-duct hoses run through doors and into cellars, trying to save the mansion from Hurricane Katrina's long-lasting remnant: mold.

The storm flooded the flower-studded grounds, swamped the wine cellar and buried the gardener's quarters in muck. Two months after Kartina, workers are at war with creeping moisture, trying to repel stench and rot from the Greek Revival mansion and museum in Old Metairie, a National Historic Landmark.

New Orleans the perennially flooded city platted amid sea, lake, swamp and river has always battled mold. But since Katrina inundated 80 percent of the city, moisture's assault has hit an all-time high, and a busy army of "mold remediation" crews have come from around the country to dry homes, businesses, schools and churches.

"We've had floods before," says preservationist Daniel Brown Jr., "but nothing like this where houses sat in water for two, three weeks." A wet building is a moving target: The longer it sits, the worse the mold gets. "Get some air circulation going, get dehumidifiers going, the air conditioner, throw that carpet away," says Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "If water is coming through the roof, you've got to fix the roof. If you've got a burst pipe, call the plumber. You've got to stop the source of moisture."

The drying-out cavalry rolled in an armada of trucks carrying miles of hoses, thermal imaging cameras and moisture meters. The crews talk enthusiastically about the properties of dew point, relative humidity and air circulation.

"When we were driving in, people were beeping their horns, giving us the thumbs up," says T.J. Lock, a superintendent for the firm Water Out, which dried out the Longue Vue mansion.

At the Old Metairie mansion, trailer-mounted heating systems pump hot air around the clock to dry the soggy cellars while large dehumidifiers keep the temperature and humidity down in the upstairs galleries, the flower arranging room, drawing rooms, library and ornate bedrooms.