Malfunctioning Sprinkler System Drenched New Mississippi Court Building

A malfunctioning sprinkler system last week drenched all four floors of Mississippi’s new $38 million building housing the state supreme court and court of appeals.

Court workers were using paper towels in an attempt to dry thousands of legal records that were soaked in water, the Columbus Commercial Dispatch reports. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Smith told the Dispatch that the most waterlogged documents were for cases already decided.

Workers were also using blowers and water vacuums to clean up and dry out the new building. It replaced an old, leaky facility that “also had water-saturation problems,” the newspaper says.

Smith told the Dispatch the flood will be “a major inconvenience for a while.”

“It is disheartening, but that’s life,” he said. “You roll with the flow and do what you have to do, and we’ll get through this.”