Work Continues To Repair Flood Damage At Montgomery County Courthouse

Workers at the Montgomery County courthouse across the state line in Independence have a mess on their hands.
    
A pipe burst at the courthouse and flooded several offices two weeks ago.   

1/8/2018 Related Story: Broken Pipe Floods Montgomery County Courthouse

The County is still working through the problem with many employees displaced. 

"We were turning telephones upside down dumping water out of them,” said Public Works Coordinator Robert Bever. 

A room usually filled with desks, ringing phones, and piles of paperwork sits empty right now after a pipe burst on the top floor of the nearly century-old building. 

“Plaster and everything laying on their desks, ink pens the way they left when they left Friday evening and they came back into a totally soaked office,” Bever said.  

The pipe burst directly above a cracked tile on the third floor in the old jail which was built in the 1930s and shortly after, water filled the room. 

“The water was coming under the doors. It was actually coming up on the other side about 3-4 inches,” Bever said.  

Nearly 10,000 gallons of water was coming through the ceilings and leaking down the walls.  

“Here it was coming through the red brick and this wall just fell out once it dried,” Bever said.  

Several employees have been displaced from their normal workplace and pushed to other county buildings. 

“We have the judicial center across the way and it had room in the basement where we set the treasurer … and some people were moved to the old building which wasn't affected,” said Board Chairman Commissioner Larry McManus. 
 
McManus said people have been very understanding during this time. 

“The jail sent prisoners over here and we had the rural fire here in independence come in and started cleaning water almost instantly … everybody stepped their game up,” he said.  

Some documents were sent to get restored to their original state, but despite all the water, several other pieces of history were left untouched. 

“For some reason, our historical road records that go back to the 1800s that were stored in this room were untouched,” Bever said.  

County officials said they hope to have everything back up and running in the next five weeks.