WHEELING, WV -- Pounding the pavement with water has become a familiar task that doesn't seem to end following the flood. The major debris may be gone, but the culprit remains: dirt and dust.

And people say they're creating a health hazard.

"I don't want to breathe all this dust," said Jim Nickerson, who lives on Wheeling Island. "It's not good, and there's flood mud within it."

Nickerson already dusted off the sidewalk outside his church several times. But he says the cloud keeps coming back. And on the Island, like many other places throughout the valley, people say they're having a hard time breathing.

"Some spots," Nickerson added. "Down on our streets, it was bad."

Dr. Mike Blatt, who's a pulmonologist at Wheeling Hospital, said once the initial shock and recovery from floods ends, another concern sets in.

In the short term, the air has become polluted with small particles that can have long-term effects.

"We've had about a ten percent increase in our hospital admissions and about a 15 percent increase in our lung problems as a result of particulate matter in the dust," said Blatt.

Blatt said people cleaning their basements have to watch for mold and fungus, and they also have to avoid breathing in vapors let off by cleaning agents such as bleach or ammonia.

"The people who get into trouble with this are usually predisposed to lung disease," said Blatt. "Either they have asthma or they have chronic obstructions."

And he said even though the waters seemed like the real enemy, the grime they left behind is the true one.

From the Ohio County Mobile Newsroom

-Brandon Weghorst, NEWS 9