Other risks involve coming into direct contact with floodwater, which contains contaminants that can cause skin infections. “It starts mixing with debris and soil and runoff from agricultural areas, and so pretty quickly you get floodwater that’s contaminated with lots of different kinds of bacteria,” Linda Yancey, an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital in Houston, told BuzzFeed News.
Sewage is also expected to mix with floodwater, along with E. coli bacteria from animal feces and agricultural runoff.
People are often tempted to take their shoes off while wading through the water, but “that’s actually a terrible thing to do because they get nicks and scratches from stuff in the water and rough surfaces of the road,” Yancey said. “We saw quite a few of them in the evacuees after Katrina.” Her advice to residents is to wash themselves thoroughly as soon as they are out of the water, disinfect any wounds, and watch for telltale signs of an infection, like red streaks.
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