The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department and the BrookhavenPolice Department were flooded Tuesday night but not because ofsevere storms moving through the area.

“Everything in here is flooded,” said Police Chief PapHenderson. “We’ve been here since midnight or 1 a.m. cleaningup.”

A 2-inch main water line burst above Investigator KevinCartwright’s office toward the rear of the sheriff’s departmentsometime after office personnel went home for the day, SheriffWiley Calcote said.

The flooding was discovered near midnight when a policedispatcher noticed the ankle-deep water outside of thecommunications office, Henderson said.

Sheriff’s department dispatchers are not located in the mainoffice. They operate out of the Lincoln County Jail across thecourthouse breezeway. The jail was not affected by theflooding.

Both top law enforcement officers said it was too early todetermine a dollar value to the damages Wednesday morning. Aplumber had been called but had not arrived by 9 a.m. Water to thebuilding was shut off as soon as the problem had beendiscovered.

“I lost a lot of supplies and equipment,” Calcote said, citingruined paper supplies and soaked ammunition, among other damages.”A couple of computers are also down.”

No case files, reports or evidence were lost, he said.

“They got wet, but we were able to save them. We laid them outand dried them,” Calcote said.

Some telephone jacks in the sheriff’s department became wet andshorted out, he said.

Henderson said damage to the police department was mainlycontained to the floor, although a few computers may have beendamaged. They also did not lose any case files or reports.

“We were able to save those and get everything off the floor,”he said. “Everyone was trying to help each other. We were runningback and forth between the departments doing what needed to bedone.”

Telephones at the police department are operating normally,Henderson said.