Flood water has harmful microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi), chemicals, and debris that may get into areas you use outside your home, such as:

• yards
• gardens
• outdoor play equipment
• sand boxes

These microorganisms, chemicals, and debris can stay in your yard and other areas outside your home after the flood water is gone.

Lawn and soil

Harmful microorganisms can stay on lawns or in soil for just a few hours or longer. Sunlight and wind will dry out lawns and soil, which helps to remove the harmful microorganisms over time. But you may choose to restore the lawn or soil yourself, remove it, or cover it with another material.

To restore or cover the lawn or soil:

• Resod or reseed grassy areas.
• Add new soil on top of the soil that was flooded.
• Cover areas of your lawn or soil with solid paving material, like stone, asphalt, or brick.

To keep your children safe:

• Remove any debris like broken glass, branches, and garbage before children play in the yard.
• Make sure your children wash their hands well after playing outside.
• Tell your children not to put their hands or toys in their mouths while they’re playing outside.

Gardens

The harmful microorganisms in flood water can get into garden vegetables and berries, making them unsafe to eat. If you’re not sure if they’re safe to eat, throw them away.

• Throw away or compost any ready-to-harvest vegetables.
• Throw away or compost any vegetables and berries that grow above ground, including peas, beans, strawberries, and lettuce.
• Throw away any vegetables that grow below ground and don’t have a thick peel, like radishes, onions, and green onions.

You can keep root vegetables, like potatoes and turnips, if you take the following steps:

1. Wait 4 to 6 weeks after the flood water goes away before you harvest them.
2. Wash them well with cool running water and a scrub brush.
3. Peel and cook them before eating.

You don’t need to replace your garden soil unless you think the chemicals in the soil have changed.

Before you use your garden again:

• Use a rotary tiller or equipment like it regularly to bring underlying soil to the surface to get sunlight.
• Replant your crops after you till.

Outdoor play equipment

Make sure outdoor play equipment is safe, clean, and sanitized before children use it:

• Flood water must be gone from the play area. If not, block the area off so children don’t try to use it.
• Clear away any debris in the play area.
• Check playground equipment to see if it’s damaged. Damaged play equipment needs to be repaired or replaced before children use it.
• Clean mud and sewage off playground equipment.
• Sanitize playground equipment with a mild bleach solution (1/2 teaspoon of household bleach mixed with 1 litre of water).
• Remove and replace any loose surfacing materials that may have sand and small debris.
• See the manufacturer’s instructions for how to clean solid playground surfacing.

Sandboxes

There are several ways to lower the risk of harmful microorganisms from sandboxes:

• Remove and replace the sand.
• Turn sand over often with a shovel so the underlying sand gets sunlight and is dried by the wind.
• Disinfect sand by applying a very strong bleach solution (1/3 cup of bleach in 4 litres of water) to wet the sand. Water the sand with clear water so the bleach solution goes deeper into the sand. Turn the top layer of sand, about 17 centimetres (7.5 inches) deep.