Flooding causes Monday closure at Ector County Courthouse

Royal McGregor, Odessa American, Texas
·2 min read

Apr. 3—Ector County building and maintenance crews had a busy Monday after flooding caused a full-day closure to the Ector County Courthouse.

During a phone interview on Monday morning, Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett said the flooding was caused by a failure in the pop-off valve for the hot water expansion tank.

Building and maintenance are still looking into why the valve failed, he said.

"We are certainly going to look at why that piece of equipment didn't do what it was supposed to do and caused all of this," Fawcett said. "This isn't the first time this courthouse has flooded. We are just blessed this time it wasn't sewage. This is something that we need to address moving forward."

Fawcett spoke about some of the extent of the damage to the courthouse.

"The damage in three of our courtrooms is pretty extensive as far as the ceiling titles, the carpet, the wood paneling on the sides," Fawcett said. "There's quite a bit of water. We are working on cleaning that up. We have stopped the leak. Now it's just getting rid of all of the water, accessing the damage and taking care of the damage."

Though he doesn't have an exact time when the valve failed, Fawcett said an attorney for the Ector County District Attorney's Office was at the courthouse on Sunday night preparing for trial but there was no signs of flooding. Fawcett said the same attorney alerted flooding Monday morning.

"Somewhere after 8 p.m. Sunday and (Monday morning) is when the problem happened," he said.

Fawcett said he hopes for the courthouse to reopen Tuesday.

"As we work throughout the day, we will be in a good situation where it's safe for the public and safe for the employees," Fawcett said about reopening Tuesday.

The courthouse recently under received a $1 million technology upgrade, but Fawcett said preliminary reports look positive.

Fawcett said a full extent will be known late Monday or early Tuesday.

"Preliminarily our electronics and technologies are OK," Fawcett said. "The video screens in the courtrooms that are there for the public as well as the computers that are there for the judges seem to be OK. We aren't going to know a full diagnostic until (Tuesday) or perhaps later (Monday) evening. We are going to work on that and make sure that we are functional that way we can resume services (Tuesday) morning."