SCRANTON -- A Lackawanna County office building is back in business today after flash flooding last week damaged the place but it still may be a while before the property is back to normal.
It sounds and smells like there's construction going on inside the Lackawanna County Gateway Center in Scranton, a building that houses several county offices and was hit hard one week ago by flash floods.
The heavy rains rushed down the stairwells inside the building.
The offices and employees were forced to move until the mess was cleared out.
"The elevators were not working. We were back and forth like yo-yos. We got relocated to the admin building. Up three flights of steps, down three flights of steps. cross the street, back and forth, happy to be home," said Lackawanna County Treasurer Edward Karpovich.
A week ago when that storm pounded the county building in the city's downtown all that water went down to the lower level causing the most damage. Air dryers have been running around the clock.
"We just started this morning, we should be here four weeks, we'll button it up and make it look right," said contractor Mike Kosmaczewski.
Crews have to work alongside county employees as day-to-day business gets done at the treasurer's and assessor's offices.
John Foley came in to find this past weekend's storms ended up soaking paperwork and furniture that was untouched during last week's storm.
"It was heavy rain pouring on Saturday night and I came in here all my papers were wet, water on the desk," said Foley. "It's an inconvenience but we'll get by."
The county's insurance covers the damage. No word how costly the soaking last week will be once it's tallied.
