Snakes supposedly are common in Cynthia Brewster's Houston neighborhood. Neighbors say they have found one wrapped around a piano leg, another hidden in a child's toy, even an 8-foot python in an attic.
But until this week, as southeast Texas continued to clean up after floods that began 10 days ago, the neighborhood claims seemed to be just stories.
"I was just fixing to dust," said a shaken Brewster, 38, whose home is near a flooded creek. "I saw this snakeskin, about 8 or 9 inches long, and I thought a snake had gotten in my house and shed its skin and there was a live snake in there somewhere.
"It just terrified me."
Venomous snakes are just one of the health threats residents still face after the flooding that left 20 dead. The list of other threats reads like a biblical horror story: contaminated drinking water and infectious diseases borne by floodwaters, rats and other animals forced from their habitats, and a population boom of mosquitoes.
But much like Brewster's snakeskin - which turned out to have been brought into the house Sunday by her 7-year-old son - these hazards have been greater threats than serious or widespread problems.
Meanwhile, officials said all but 200 barrels of crude oil had been skimmed off or evaporated from the San Jacinto River. Four pipelines ruptured during flooding last week. Shoreline cleaning will take longer.
J. Robert Hunter, Texas Insurance Department commissioner, said insured losses from the floods could reach $700 million.
About 14,000 people were displaced by the floods.
It's "a real tragedy to anyone whose house was flooded," said Harris County environmental health director John Williams. "But the amount of water contaminated and illnesses doesn't look very great."
More than 8,000 county homes, using 11 water systems, are under boil-water orders. Many, including 130 in Houston, have backed-up septic tanks and are waiting for pumps before their toilets can be used.
The chief health worry, however, comes as people wade in floodwaters, clean drenched furniture and carpets and in other ways risk infection from filthy water. In the 35 counties designated federal disaster areas, tetanus shots are being given by the thousands.
"We've had a steady stream getting shots," said Teresa Payne, a volunteer at the Forest Cove Baptist Church, which is northeast of Houston. "And there are people lined up out the door in (the nearby town of) New Caney."
Harris County Commissioner Jim Fonteno said many of his constituents live in eastern, rural areas. Many lost their vehicles to the flood, so he has requested a mobile unit to give them tetanus shots.
Richard Proctor, a physician and regional director of the Texas Health Department, said many health experts also are worried about bacteria like shigella, which causes dysentery, and salmonella, as well as immune system weakness caused by exhaustion and hepatitis A. None of those problems has turned up, but doctors have been asked to report any outbreaks.
Finally, miles of standing water have produced a surfeit of mosquitoes.
"It's not a lot of fun here," said John Billodeaux, director of the Harris County Mosquito Control District. "In some places, it's like suicide to go outside at all."
Mike Howlett of the East Texas Herpetological Society said he's gotten calls about lizards and snakes. He helped look for a 14-foot Burmese python but has yet to find a single venomous snake.
And Brewster feels a lot better now that she has an explanation for the appearance in her house of a snakeskin, apparently from a deadly cottonmouth.
