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Posted By RichardJ
During recent floods, the basement of our business was flooded from a local river that burst its banks. It was approx 4ft deep of flood water and now everything has been removed that was damaged. However, wooden stacking shelving units still remain with undamaged items (box files, stationery, drawings)on the upper shelves. This area of the business is only visited infrequently for occasional access to stationery, old files, etc.
We are looking to sanitise the area but specialist company says that any wooden racks cannot be 100% santised due to joints etc where bacteria pores can still remain. They say racks should be removed and destroyed. Is this correct or do we keep them and consider the remaining untreated joints as low risk and acceptable?
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Posted By mrs.seed
please bear in mind that the following is not based on a professtional opinion, but simply my own experience the last few weeks.
My house was flooded and as you were, we were advised by our insurance company to get rid of anything wooden that had touched the flood water. The water we were flooded with was surface water (with the road draininage unable to cope with the volume). Bear in mind however that rivers and surface water when flood cannot be guarenteed to be free of sewage.
our house has been cleaned/sprayed, but even so when the internal doors were removed and skipped they split open, revealing a mass of mould growth after just 3 weeks.
To me this demonstrates that the joints in your shelving will be undergoing the same process. The sanitising agents will not reach these parts and the mould/bacteria will start to spread.
Also consider your insurance company who instructed you to remove the shelving. If the water has weakened them and they fall or if illness happens due to bacteria becomes airborne, where as a company would you stand.
hope this helps.
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Posted By Ian Blenkharn
From what you describe, there is no significant risk of infection - whatever micro-organisms may be present are unlikely to be harmful to health, other than the allergic impact of molds, and with that exception you are not going to be exposed to them by any route that may result in infection.
Take care not to eat the racking and you will be fine. The risk of a splinter causing a septic finger is little more that it would be pre-flood, and other routes of infection are still less likely.
You have been properly advised that decontamination and the use of disinfectants is lilkely be fail. If you use enough to saturate the racking, they will presumably warp and become unusable.
Make sure the area is well ventilated and keep the area clean and as dry as possible, treating any areas of mold that may occur with detergent and diluted hypochlorite until you can plan replacement and upgrade of the racking. You might benefit from prolonged warm air drying and teh extended use of dehumidifiers but the cost may exceed that of thereplacement racking.
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