ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — The Ector County Courthouse has announced an emergency closure for the remainder of today, June 3 due to flooding, according to a press release from the Ector County Court House.
According to a press conference with Judge Dustin Fawcett, an old iron valve came loose on a water line sending water spewing into the county clerk's office and into the basement.
Judge Fawcett says that this happens all too often.
"Our county clerk is always prepared for these types of water situations and actually have significant amounts of tarps to cover all of their equipment, all of their technology, computers and their records," Judge Fawcett said. "Unfortunately, there were some records that did have a little bit of damage. We were able to move as much as possible on a time frame as quick as possible. I think that we preserved the majority of everything, but we did have some concerns with some of the case files that were down there. Some of them harbored fingerprints of cases and many criminal cases. And so that was one of our biggest concerns."
Fawcett also said that they have a cloud-based system, meaning records and other documents are preserved.
The hope is that the courthouse will open at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.