Sewage and chemicals in floodwaters pose threat of disease

SEWAGE and chemicals are mixed into a potentially toxic bathtub soaking New Orleans, posing the threat of disease for residents forced to wade in Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters.

Health officials said the floodwaters whipped up by the devastating storm carried a potentially lethal cocktail of toxic chemicals, gasoline and human waste.

“Probably the more immediate health risk to the people is that whatever was in the sewer is in the water,” said John Pardue, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.