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Flooding in S.J. courthouse has caused over $200,000 in damages; cost could rise
Last week's flood in the main San Joaquin County courthouse left between $200,000 and $300,000 worth of damage in its wake, officials said Wednesday.
About 15,000 gallons of water poured out of a pipe into a construction area on the fourth floor of the Stockton courthouse Feb. 13, and water soon began soaking through the floor. It damaged the third-floor ceiling and poured down elevator shafts, and everyone in the building was evacuated.
The exact cause of the flood is still under investigation, said Karen McConnell, public information officer for the county. Whether liability rests on the county or on contractors will not be determined until the investigation is finished, she said.
On the morning of the flood, Safety and Risk Manager Richard Pietz said a pipe was left open in an area where the air conditioning system was being replaced. When a boiler turned on around 4:30 a.m., water began flowing out the pipe, and it was not discovered for roughly two hours.
Some officials had initially said the pipe broke.
And on Wednesday, Judge George J. Abdallah Jr. had a version that fell in between both accounts. In apologizing to jurors for the delay, he told them a pipe had broken, workers had capped it and then when the boiler turned on, it pushed the cap off.
Either way, water flowed through the building for at least two hours. At least two county employees who arrived in the building early that morning described hearing what sounded like a waterfall in the elevators.
Building officials temporarily shut off all power, due to threats of water causing shorts, and courthouse proceedings were halted for almost two hours.
All jury trials were postponed, though judges in the undamaged three-floor court wing were eventually able to continue calling criminal cases that had time limits on them. Except for the fourth floor, the rest of the seven-story courthouse reopened around noon that day.
A cleaning crew began ridding the building of water that day, and they spent the three-day holiday weekend drying it out. By Wednesday, one elevator was still out of order.
The exact amount of damages will not be known until inspectors determine several other factors, including whether the water damaged sheet rock in the elevator shafts, McConnell said.
Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.
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