Home » News Stream » Local »

Damaged Documents

By Tiffany Craig

Water damages one-thousand Mobile County Probate Court public records Damaged Documents

Published: Wed, September 19, 2007 - 3:44 pm Last Updated: Wed, September 19, 2007 - 4:17 pm

Mobile County's Probate records are waterlogged and moldy after the sprinkler system went off last week damaging millions of documents.

For Richard Johnson, probate records are like his babies. "I didn't know whether to cry or what to do. I was stunned because this is one of the worst things that could happen to us." From marriage licenses to property documents, millions of records are soaked. Brenda Howard says seeing all the damage was tough. "I had tears in my eyes. I mean, this is 23 years of work that I've done." The documents are on microfilm. Each black square on a sheath represents a page of someone's past. The microfilm is protected in a jacket.

Brenda says all the record keepers scrambled to help out. "Everybody's sitting with hairdryers. This is what we started with is hairdryers and trying to open up the jackets and blow dry it." But the damage done by the sprinkler system on Thursday night was too much for them to handle.
According to Mobile Fire officials, someone unplugged the compressor that is part of the sprinkler system. That triggered the water and all the mess. County officials say insurance will pay for the wet records.

Probate Judge Don Davis says the county has declared this mess a disaster and speeding up the process to fix it. "We need to protect and take steps to protect what we have now. We want to make the best decision for the county." Davis says the damaged documents date back before 1985. So, bids are being taken to decide if they'll will be restored or digitized. "If the records were digitized, then they would become available for review on our internet website." Until a decision is made, the documents will be kept in a freezer to preserve that's left.

County Commissioners will meet on Monday to decide what to do next. All the probate documents have multiple back ups so the information is not lost.