Flood infections kill four
By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 8, 2005

Four persons have died in what federal health officials think was likely a bacterial infection circulating in Hurricane Katrina's contaminated floodwaters in New Orleans, and new EPA tests show the water is full of sewage and lead.

Environmental Protection Agency Director Stephen L. Johnson said yesterday that the amount of E. coli and coliform, a bacterium found in sewage, in the water was at least 10 times EPA's recommended levels. Lead levels in the water also were elevated, he said.

"Human contact with the floodwaters should be avoided as much as possible ... and no one should drink the floodwaters, especially children," Mr. Johnson said at a press conference, where he released testing data for post-hurricane water samples collected daily since Friday from residential sections of New Orleans.

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