Flooding Heavily Damages Prosecutor's Office

FRANKLIN, Ind. -- The water was gone Monday, but the cleanup in Franklin is just beginning.

Some of the most extensive damage in the city was to the Johnson County Prosecutor's Office, which had about 7 feet of water inside before water began receding.

Room after room inside the building is a waterlogged mess.

"Looking at this, it's going to take months to get back to normal," said Brad Cooper, chief deputy prosecutor.

It was the second time prosecutors dealt with flooding. The office used to be in the courthouse annex basement, but flooding in the first instance was not as severe.

"It was a much slower flood then. It rose up a couple of inches every hour," Cooper said. "Here, it rose a couple of feet in an hour and we couldn't get anything out."

All of the paperwork and files were destroyed, but many of the computer hard drives can be saved, 6News' Jennifer Carmack reported.

Prosecutors are using building space at the Johnson County Fairgrounds as a makeshift office.