Asbestos cleanup in hurricane-ravaged Galveston still ongoing

Sep 29, 2008

From the aerial photos, it appears as though Hurricane Ike left behind a big pile of jumbled garbage where the once charming beach town of Galveston, with its historic East End and Victorian cottages, once stood. Cleaning up that mess won’t happen over night. “At 60,000-feet altitude, the damage just looks like a lot of debris,” lamented Galveston’s city manager, Steve LeBlanc, “Just clean it up. Flip a switch. And we can be back online. It’s a whole lot more complicated than that.”

One of the major complications of the cleanup effort is all the toxic asbestos strewn about in the construction debris. The sludge that was left behind contains dangerous asbestos materials, used in all sorts of building products, including insulation, shingles, roofing, floor and ceiling tiles—even paint. The problem is made worse by the fact that many of the homes in Galveston were older, built at a time when asbestos use was almost omnipresent in home construction. Early on, city officials had identified 150 homes and other buildings that had collapsed, but that number was expected to grow.

Before the garbage can be hauled away, the hazardous asbestos debris must be separated from the materials that can be taken to recycling centers or ground into mulch. Grady Clay, with the Army Corps of Engineers, explained that the asbestos-containing refuse has to be taken to specially designated landfills to prevent further exposure to the material. Asbestos is particularly dangerous during removal or cleanup operations. When released into the air, asbestos fibers are easily inhaled into the lungs and may become lodged there, causing asbestosis, lung cancer, or mesothelioma—a rare, but deadly, cancer.

The asbestos complication unfortunately means that the cleanup in Galveston will take quite a while. Mr. Clay explained: “I just got back from cleaning up Hurricane Dolly, which was all brush and wood, and it got cleaned up in a month or so.” He estimated that the cleanup in Galveston would take a year or more.

For the full story, go to the New York Times.

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