Hysterical Leftist Fear-Mongering In New Orleans Update.

Thanks to WebMD for making it official: Dirty water does NOT turn you into a raping, looting, flesh-eating zombie who always votes Democrass. (Better luck next time, Katie.)

The New Orleans floodwaters were found to contain:

Bacteria (most likely from fecal contamination in sewage).

Gasoline components (benzene, toluene, and ethylbenzene -- most likely from submerged vehicles).

Common compounds from household chemicals including aerosol paints and insecticides.

Metals such as lead, arsenic, and chromium.

The mix was not fit for drinking. But the levels of bacteria and most metals were not very different from typical New Orleans storm water runoff, write the researchers. However, the levels of lead and gasoline components were slightly more elevated.

In the days after Katrina struck, researchers braved the city in a flat-bottomed boat, gathering 38 samples of floodwater from the West End, Lakeview, and Tulane-Gravier areas of the city. Many storm survivors and first responders were exposed to floodwaters in those areas, the researchers note.

Floodwaters being pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain at the 17th Street drainage canal were also checked.

"What we had in New Orleans was basically a year's worth of storm water flowing through the city in only a few days," says Pardue in a news release.
"We still don't think the floodwaters were safe, but it could have been a lot worse. It was not the chemical catastrophe some had expected," he continues.

"What distinguishes Katrina floodwaters are their large volume and the human exposure to these pollutants that accompanied the flood rather than extremely elevated concentrations of toxic pollutants," write the researchers.