[jcrozy]

ABC News chief health and med­ical ed­i­tor Dr. Richard Besser col­lected flood­wa­ter and drink­ing water in some of the areas hit hard­est by Sandy and had them tested at The Am­bi­ent Group lab. The flood­wa­ter col­lected in Lower Man­hat­tan tested pos­i­tive for gaso­line and two types of bac­te­ria found in sewage: E. coli and co­l­iform.

“Very dan­ger­ous,” Besser said. “Make sure you wear pro­tec­tive gear if you are com­ing into con­tact with flood water.”

Look­ing at the test­ing con­tain­ers filled with Man­hat­tan flood­wa­ter, Besser said that the yel­low in one con­tainer meant bac­te­ria was pre­sent and the pur­ple in an­other meant “sky-high lev­els of sewage con­t­a­m­i­na­tion.”

Today, he went to Pier­mont, N.Y., an area hit so hard by the hur­ri­cane that it’s under a boil water ad­vi­sory, mean­ing res­i­dents are in­structed not to drink tap water with­out pu­ri­fy­ing it with sev­eral drops of bleach.