When Hurricane Ian swept through Florida in September, Christian Childers and Kendra Elliott’s home on the central Gulf Coast town of Englewood became swamped under five inches of water.
The water subsided a few days later, and then the toxic mould began to grow “dramatically” on walls, ceilings and air vents in the couple’s rented bungalow, Ms Elliott told The Independent.
With thousands displaced and no emergency housing available, the blended family of six were forced to board up a bedroom and bathroom where the mould was at its worst and wait for help.
In the ensuing weeks, Childers experienced fatigue and shortness of breath, and suffered two asthma attacks that required hospitalisation, Ms Elliott said.
On Christmas Eve he suffered a third serious asthma attack and was rushed to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where he died on 2 January.
“It’s like a nightmare,” Ms Elliott told The Independent. “They told us the house was still liveable. Well clearly it wasn’t liveable because he died. They forced us to live in a death trap.”
Englewood, which straddles Charlotte and Sarasota Counties, was especially hard hit by Hurricane Ian. In Charlotte County alone, dozens of residents were reported dead or missing in the Category 4 storm’s aftermath among a population of about 190,000.
With many streets blocked and electricity down, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s emergency response teams prioritised helping survivors whose houses had been torn down or badly damaged.
Ms Elliott told The Independent the family’s appeals for help to clean and detoxify their home to FEMA and the Red Cross went unanswered.
“If your roof is intact, it’s deemed a liveable structure,” she said.
The electricity remained down for more than two weeks, and the pipes had burst.
Simple tasks like clothing or cooking meals for their two sons, nine-year-old Riley and four-year-old Colton, became an ordeal.
Ms Elliott was also caring for her sister’s seven-year-od son Charles and her mother, who had undergone surgery a year earlier. She had left her job to care for the relatives and the family were behind on bills.
Their landlord called in a handyman to carry out much-needed repairs. While looking for the source of the mould, he busted open an inner wall — and more of the toxic sludge came pouring back out.
“Nothing got fixed,” Ms Elliott said. “They didn’t even come back and put drywall over it.”
Christian Childers was placed in a medically-induced coma and died on 2 January, leaving a fiancee Kendra Elliott and two children
Childers was the sole breadwinner in the household, and in the months after the hurricane, he continued to travel around the state for work.
Every time he came home, his asthma got worse.
He suffered two attacks in the weeks leading up to Christmas that required trips to the emergency room.
On the second time, his oxygen levels were so low that he had to spend three nights in hospital.
Kendra Elliott’s Englewood home had black mould and dirt pouring out of the walls
Christian Childers, at the birth of his son Colton, suffered a fatal asthma attack after being exposed to toxic black mould
