In June of 2019, I worked with a disaster relief nonprofit to support a small community called Sand Springs on the outskirts of Tulsa, Oklahoma which had flooded over several days.

While assessing homes affected by the flooding, we saw that a homeowner had drilled small holes along their baseboards and pointed box fans at the wall. “It was only a little water,” the homeowner said. “Rushed right in and then back out again.”

Five years prior, they had done the same thing when their house had flooded.

Our team checked the moisture levels in the wall along the baseboard and then up the wall. Everywhere was wet. We did a test cut in the drywall fairly high up the wall and found significant mold. Mold that had been growing since the flood five years ago, not five days.

Sometimes it’s just a little bit of water, but it’s impact easily blooms; unseen and dangerous.