wildfires aren't the only extreme weather we deal with in New Jersey this week Mark the official start of hurricane season climate change is making storms more intense and more frequent in our region making it more likely that new jerseyans will experience flooding or water damage in their homes and when the water goes away mold often follows and our latest collaboration with climate Central Brenda Flanagan reports on the problems molds can cause for storm survivors even though I have a full-time job but I'm so overwhelmed Charlene dionio is still struggling to pay the twenty thousand dollars it took to clean up after Hurricane Ida flooded her basement in Dumont leaving behind black mold in her carpets and walls Ida swamped New Jersey killing 29 people and causing two billion dollars in damage thousands of homes sat festering in the heat with mold spreading I opened a closet there's like black spots going up and uh you know I said oh my gosh dionio says she spent frantic months trying to hire a contractor meanwhile her dad who lives with her found himself fighting for breath and he will be hacking and I have to give him nebulizers and that goes on so I so I said oh my gosh this um this moles is really affecting him her dad ended up hospitalized she says that helped convince her contractor to finally rip out the wreaking carpets and walls another family in Bridgewater tells a similar tale of Ida flooding and mole test kits showing fungus growing in their home but Alyssa geibel says she didn't even have to see it plus you could smell it in the air like it smelled totally different than the upstairs could totally smell the mold in the basement so I'm like okay we need something that's put on masks to go down there so you have heat mold and a food source mold expert Mike Van Dyke considers it a growing problem that impacts Living Spaces and jeopardizes health especially as the world gets hotter and storms more intense the New Jersey dep's 2020 science report on climate change warns of an increase in potential water moisture damage to buildings and a higher potential for dampness and condensation indoors creating more ideal environments for mold and bacteria growth so I think that kind of thing is going to be happening more and more as we have these you know catastrophic flooding events so I think you know clearly this is a climate issue I remain convinced that fungi can make people sick Rutgers researcher Joan Bennett sampled molds that grew in homes down the shore after superstorm Sandy she also predicts a looming Health crisis and notes while not everyone one reacts badly to mold it can cause severe illness and here in New Jersey six hundred thousand adults and 167 000 kids already suffer from asthma with climate change and the the number of really devastating storms going up we're going to be seeing more and more flooding more and more mold growth and more and more people getting sick mold remediation remains costly government Aid can be glacially slow in coming and even harder to get for tenants who must depend on landlords to clean up mold Bennett says resulting health issues are not always diagnosed as a mold problem it's often called thick building syndrome or damp building syndrome and there are many many people who feel that they have been made sick and have respiratory issues and brain fog and fatigue by living in moldy houses is it more risky for me to not have a home or is it more risky for me to live in this that has a potential health risk Van Dyke recommends families with scant resources pick one room for vulnerable family members and make it as safe as possible especially with good ventilation geibel's parents helped pay the six thousand dollars it cost to remediate her home dionio's dad meanwhiles out of the hospital her home's mold free for now but she obsessively monitors every storm forecast I have fear I have fear yet another worry in a warming world I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News