Robbinsville – A construction error led to a water line break and major flooding Friday at the Graham County Community Building on Knight Street, forcing county offices to close temporarily.
Listed by county records at 8,488 square feet, the building has been undergoing a major remodel, with the county elections office opening just in time for the 2022 elections. It too flooded, but only the half sharing a wall with other county government offices. The community room was spared the flooding and was used to lay out paper records to dry.
It was the county offices that took a drenching, with shoe-deep water in some places.
Kim Crisp, clerk of the Board of Commissioners and acting county manager, said the source of the flooding was in a men’s room undergoing remodeling.
She said workers had capped a waterline with PVC, a plastic-like material used in plumbing.
“It busted the cap in the middle and it blew out around 9 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 26). We found it 6:30 a.m. the next day,” Crisp explained. “… It is quite interesting down here with the blowers and fans. It did get the newly-renovated election board (office) as well. We had water through our office walls going to the outside of the building. They said the pipe was around an inch or inch-½ that was expelling the water.”
Servpro, a private company that specializes in fire and water cleanup, sent three units from other Western North Carolina counties. One technician said most of the water had been swept out by the time they arrived and all they had to focus on was getting what water remained, plus salvage.
As of Tuesday, county offices located inside the building had not reopened.