CHICKASHA – The Grady County Courthouse remained closed Wednesday for a tenth consecutive day because of heavy rainfall late last month that flooded the basement.
The building “will be closed until further notice, due to flooding issues,” a voicemail recording informs callers. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
The surrounding area within a circumference of about five miles of Chickasha received eight to 10 inches of rainfall, Grady County Emergency Management Director Dale Thompson said.
“A lot of that rain fell on the north side of Chickasha,” he said. “And what didn’t pour into the Washita River flooded our city storm sewer system.” Water bubbled out of manholes, he said.
Chickasha’s sewage treatment plant can process about six million gallons of wastewater daily, “but the sewer mains were trying to push twice that much water, double the plant’s capacity,” Thompson said.
Storm water overwhelmed the storm sewers and backed up into the courthouse basement to a depth of six to eight inches, he said, flooding the courtroom of Associate District Judge Joseph Young and a room that contains electrical panels and telephone system equipment.
The “major culprit” was a check valve between the courthouse and the sewer main that was supposed to prevent water from backing up into the building, Thompson said.
The fire department used a portable pump to siphon water from the basement into a tanker truck parked outside the courthouse. Because there was nowhere in Chickasha where the excess water could be dumped, the nearby town of Ninnekah allowed the floodwater to be pumped into their sewage lagoon, Thompson said.
The county hired H&H Plumbing and Utilities of Goldsby to install a check valve to prevent water from backing up into the courthouse, but they had to wait until the water in the basement was removed, Thompson said. “They tell us it’ll take about six hours for the plumbers to install the check valve.”
SERVPRO, a restoration company from Norman, began gutting the courtroom but the job may not be finished for several weeks, if not months, Thompson indicated. During the work they will look for a long-forgotten drain that may be in the courtroom and got clogged, he said.
SERVPRO fogged the courthouse Wednesday afternoon with “hospital-grade” supplies in order to clean, disinfect and sanitize the HVAC system, to kill the bacteria and mold and eliminate the sewer odor in the building, Thompson said.
“We may be able to open back up by Friday,” he said, “but we just don’t know yet.”
The judge relocated to a nearby building that houses the Grady County Election Board, the county fire department, and the Emergency Management office.
The Court Clerk stationed a box in the Emergency Management office where court documents can be dropped off temporarily until business returns to normal.
Grady County Commissioners held their weekly meeting at the Grady County Fairgrounds Community Building, rather than the courthouse, on Tuesday.