PASCAGOULA — Nora Brown has been living with several family members, including her eight grandchildren, in a flood-soaked home since Hurricane Katrina hit the coast two weeks ago, but it's a new house guest that's causing problems.

Black mold is growing inside her home and she says it has already made one of her grandchildren sick.

Brown, like thousands of other Pascagoula residents, has water and electricity and has opted to stay in her home. She also has no money for contractors, who are scarce, to remove the mold growing in the place she has called home for five years.

"Everything's just gone, it's gone. We have to start all over again from day one. It's rough," said Brown, 49, who's now worried about her family's health.

One grandchild recently became ill possibly from exposure to mold, Brown said. The child was taken to the hospital and has since returned home.

Health officials are concerned about overexposure to black mold resulting from hurricanes and the complications that arise for people with asthma, allergies or other breathing conditions. Cancer patients taking chemotherapy, and those who have received an organ transplant are also susceptible to mold infections.

Brown has registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for financial assistance and temporary housing, but has not heard about the status of her claim.

"We have nowhere else to go," she said.

Across town, a stray dog adopted by Jeffrey Diamond's family frolics around the property that received 2 feet of unprecedented flood water in the Pinecrest subdivision.

Diamond's mother, Delois Stevens, and his grandmother, Mary Diamond, were waiting for an insurance adjuster and a FEMA representative because the five vehicles on the property were also claimed by Hurricane Katrina.

They have been working on the sheet rock and pulling carpet to rid the house of mold.

"We've been trying to get it out," said Stevens, pointing to mold that caked underneath the tub and other areas. "People don't know it can do that," she said of the mold's growth.

Stevens' father, C.T. Burkes, helped build Pinecrest around 50 years ago, where residents are still in awe of the flood that Katrina brought to south central part Pascagoula.

"You look around and there's damage everywhere, to everyone," she said. "You've got to save what's left."
 

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