VAN BUREN, Mo. -- Carter County officials are in the midst of what is described as a "cumbersome" process of attempting to preserve the county's water-soaked records.
Historic flooding in late April inundated downtown Van Buren, including many homes and businesses, as well as the county's courthouse, sheriff's department and jail, when Current River crested at 37.2 feet on Sunday, April 30.
County Clerk Leona Stephens estimates her first-floor office in the courthouse had 9 feet of water in it.
The same was true in the first-floor offices of the treasurer, recorder of deeds, collector and Probation and Parole, as well as the county commission chambers.
The water was "over the file cabinets, everything," Stephens said. "I had a couple of books on the very top shelf that did not get taken."
The flood waters damaged nearly "every county record," Stephens said. The only exceptions were files/records in the offices of the assessor and circuit clerk, both of which were located on the second floor of the courthouse.
As the flood waters receded, Stephens said, contact was made with Secretary of State personnel.
"They said get everything in a reefer, freezer truck," explained Stephens, who indicated the freezer trailer usually is used to store frozen food.
County officials, she said, "put everything in there. ... We couldn't get very much out of the file cabinets because they were completely soaked with water and swollen."
Stephens said when they tried to remove some of the records, they would tear in your hand.
"We took the drawers out of the cabinets and put the whole drawer in the freezer so it would circulate and freeze," Stephens explained. "Then, the stuff in boxes and books and binders, we just put them in the truck as they were."
Three of the pallets put into the freezer reportedly were case files, as well as jail and dispatch records, from the sheriff's department.
The 53-foot trailer, she said, was filled front to back with records/original work papers, but not floor to ceiling. Everything, she said, had to go into the freezer within 48 hours to prevent molding.
"We did that; that's where (the records) sat until this last week when the Secretary of State got their stuff together, came down here and looked over what we had," Stephens explained.
At that time, she said, officials went through the records determining "what we could pull off the trailer. We were pulling frozen blocks of books apart.
"It was not that easy. That took a while."
Before the next step in the preservation process could begin, Stephens said, the county had to find a building suitable for drying out the records.
After finding one in Grandin, "we have just been taking the important, recent (documents) we need right now," Stephens said. "We've taken them off the truck in little batches and are bringing them over to Grandin, where we are letting them thaw."
That, she said, puts the records back to the soaking wet stage.
"Then, we start the drying process," said Stephens, who described it as a "pretty cumbersome" process.
The records, she said, are stacked under fans.
"We have a bunch of fans and shelves," Stephens said.
As the stacks get smaller and smaller, then "blotter sheets" are placed between them, said Stephens, who indicated the process is working. "Then, we hang them to dry."
The process, she said, goes on and on until each officeholder decides "what their new official record" will be -- digital (scanned) or photocopy.
Tuesday, according to Stephens, was the first day "we brought back two small boxes of records, one for the treasurer and one for the county clerk, to be copied."
Stephens described the process as being "quite overwhelming."
"We're hoping that President Trump will call a (federal disaster) declaration," Stephens said. "If and when ... when that happens, we will stop this process, and we will send it out to a vendor, and they will dry it and determine what we are going to do."
Without the declaration, "if we have to process the entire truck, it's going to be a long time to get it all done," Stephens said.
Some items, such as books, which can be replaced, didn't go onto the truck, Stephens said.
"Some of the things we can recreate," she said. "We're doing that to save the expense of going through the drying process."
Those records, Stephens said, include personnel records and account payable files, but "some things are just lost.
"It's not worth the expense of drying them, although we are supposed to (as they) have a retention life."
The Secretary of State, she said, is going to "write us a letter saying these documents were severely (damaged) in the flood and give us a pass on it when the auditors come."
While an invoice may have been destroyed, Stephens said, electronic data is available to show the bill was paid.
As Stephens continues to conduct business, "I can't tell you how many times I've reached for something, I'll think it's right here, but it's not in the drawer. It's not here anymore, it's on the truck."