Health district's office floods

MOSES LAKE — A failing exterior irrigation pipe caused flooding in the basement of the Grant County Health District’s Moses Lake office.

“Our staff went to the basement and discovered water flooding in,” reported Jeff Ketchel, administrator. “There was about an inch of water down there and we were worried about the boxes of files and records we had down there that were not on racks. It was kind of a mess for us, but we responded quickly and the staff dealt with everything appropriately.”

Ketchel said the county responded quickly to assist in the cleanup process. The wet files containing medical records were not allowed to be destroyed, so the state advised the health district to store them and recover the documents.

The health district employees took the files to a cold storage building until they were able to transport them to a facility for the files to be freeze-dried for a few months. The wet files were transported to Americold Logistics, located outside of Moses Lake and the state paid for expenses incurred.

“We were lucky that nothing important was damaged and that we were able to recover all the files,” Ketchel said. “The coroner’s office was helpful in allowing us to store some of the dry files in their office and we are grateful for all their assistance.”

The Grant County Health District’s Moses Lake office is located at 1038 W. Ivy Ave.

For more information, call 509-766-7960.