news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Four  months ago, an early evening storm left parts of Guilford County under floodwaters.

The deluge — a record-breaking 8  inches in some parts of the county — ruined five condos in the historic Wafco Mills  development and washed away decades of records at the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.

Today, victims of the flood continue the slow process of rebuilding what took mere moments to wash away.

At Wafco Mills on the western edge of downtown, one unit has been cleaned up and rented, said Jay Lennartson , 52 , a resident whose condo was flooded.

“We’re excited to be rebuilding and getting people back in their homes,” he said. “We have a special property there, unique.”

A few blocks east on Washington Street, workers spent Thursday  putting up drywall in the basement at the sheriff’s office.

Up until that June 3  storm, officials stored some records in the basement.

The flood damaged an untold number of files that had to be scooped up with the rest of the sludge, said sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Bruce .

Since then, workers have gone through the remaining records, culling  the illegible from the potentially salvageable.

The state archives office and county lawyers helped with determining which records had to be saved and which could be destroyed, Bruce said.

“We went from about 750 bankers boxes, down probably to — what it will equate to — is about 100,” he said.

Many were set to be destroyed anyway, Bruce said.

They buried the unsalvageable records at the county prison farm.

The records that remain sit at below-freezing temperatures in two 48-foot long trailers at the prison farm.

It costs about $600  a month to rent each trailer, Bruce said. The county is waiting for bids on the restoration work, which looks like it will cost closer to $100,000  now, Bruce said.

Original estimates, based on saving most of the files first pulled from the flooded basement, were closer to $800,000 . Bruce expects they’ll likely lose more records during that process as restorers peel apart frozen pages hiding illegible information underneath.

“For the most serious victim crimes, we’re going to make every effort to restore those records,” Bruce said.

Offices once located in the basement have been moved upstairs into a former conference room. A new meeting space will be built in the basement, said Sheriff BJ Barnes.

The weight room will remain downstairs and his fleet supervisor will be there as well, Barnes said.

“I told them ... I don’t want anything in that basement that doesn’t float,” he said.

No outward sign of the flood remains at the sheriff’s office.

Nor at Wafco Mills, where Adirondack chairs sit on a deck once littered with twigs, mud and garbage — backwash from floodwaters that rushed through the courtyard.

New doors — dark red with gleaming locks and alarm systems — adorn each unit. Donations from the larger Wafco Mills community helped cover the cost, Lennartson says.

He’s doing much of the painting himself and recently bought a whole new kitchen.

“We’re coming along,” Lennartson says. “Our place is starting to look nice again.”
 

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com