Construction crews and staff at the Garland County Health Unit spent Tuesday working to partially reopen the facility to the public after multiple pipes in the attic of the building ruptured over the weekend.
County Judge Darryl Mahoney said Tuesday that there were also frozen water pipes at the coroner's office, with no damage, but there was extensive damage at the health department.
"We had frozen water at our coroner's office with no damage," he said. "They were able to get it off. We had seven ruptures in a waterline at the health department, and it's got major damage inside the building."
Mahoney said they learned of the damage around 10 a.m. Saturday, noting they "shut it down, had ... Steamatic in there within the hour and they pulled all the water out of it. We had a plumber come on Christmas Day, repair the plumbing and we started tear out (Monday) morning."
Garland County Health Unit Director Susan Lester said the county had prepared the building for the cold temperatures that were forecast.
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"We all knew the weather was coming, so county maintenance came over Thursday, before the holidays whenever it got bad," she said. "They spent time going up in our attic and making sure the pipes were wrapped, and we prepared by letting the water drip, like a lot of people did in Arkansas and this area, and we left the heat on to hopefully prepare for the cold weather that was coming."
Mahoney said the ruptured pipes were "wrapped in 2 1/2 inches of commercial insulation" with "R38 insulation on top of that. We had the ceiling panels open where heat from the building could go up, and we also had water dripping, and it still ruptured in seven places."
Mahoney and Lester were among those who went to the health department Saturday to assess the damage, and Lester said she was happy to see some of the more vital things were spared.
"Fortunately, whenever I came in on Christmas Eve, I checked the things that are vital to people like our medications and immunizations, and fortunately all that was spared," she said. "So that was a huge blessing. And also our (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) formula that we have in stock was not damaged."
The health department is aiming to reopen today at 8 a.m. in a limited capacity, but family planning appointments are being rescheduled or moved to other health units in the area.
"It could have been worse for sure, but right now we're just trying to try to dig out of it and get ready to see patients again," Lester said. "Right now it's not safe to have patients in here just because of the areas where the damage occurred."
She said certain parts of the building are not going to be safe to see patients until there's some more cleanup.
"As far as things like immunizations, like flu shots, COVID shots, we're going to be able to do WIC and vital records (today), but the family planning patients, we're probably going to reschedule some of those. It shouldn't affect too many people. We're definitely trying to minimize the amount of people that we have to reschedule or refer to another unit."
This is the second time in the past three years there have been frozen pipes at the health department, Mahoney said.
"We're probably looking at $40,000-$50,000 worth of damage there," he said. "I notified the insurance company via email on Saturday evening, and they actually responded to me on Christmas. There's gonna be an adjuster there (Tuesday). Got good documentation of it, and we're gonna get it put back together, but that's really the only issue that we had."
Lester said while the damage is significant, she is confident the staff will be able to get through this challenge.
"For me personally, I really care about my staff, I care about our citizens and I believe in what we do here in public health," she said.
"We've worked so hard to make it what it is, so functional and nice, and to come in and see that damage, it was, I'm not gonna lie, a little bit heartbreaking. But we will recover. We are strong. We've been through quite a bit. If nothing else, COVID made us all quite a bit stronger, and we'll persevere."