The first Clanton Advertiser employees to arrive into work Monday were greeted by a big surprise. Our entire office, from the pressroom to the front office, had been flooded. Water stood up to 3 inches in the deepest places.

I wouldn’t dare compare our water damage to the tornado damage suffered in other parts of the county, but we too had to start cleaning up after the storms had passed.

I rode out the storm in Clanton’s storm shelter and headed to Maplesville as soon as safely possible. I spent all morning there, covering the tornado and its aftermath.

While I was there and other writers covered the storm in other parts of the county, other staff members worked to get the water out of the building.

We had to bring in some professionals to mop up what we couldn’t get out. Even before all the water was sucked up and the weeklong process of drying out began, we wanted to know why it happened.

The simple answer is that we got so much rain that the drains and sewer system couldn’t handle it. Where our office sits, lower than U.S. 31 surely played a factor too.

It’s not the first time water has gotten into the building, but it’s never been anything to this magnitude.

The city of Clanton has been great to work with and have helped us so much this week. They had crews here within minutes Monday looking at drainage and anything they could do to help.

The next day workers were back, digging out a ditch that runs between our office and CVS Pharmacy, which gets water away from our office and toward the creek that runs along Goosepond Park.

After Thursday’s heavy rains, the city was back out again to inspect things and offer additional help.

We appreciate the work they have done, and I’m not sure the response in other places outside the county would have been as fast and efficient.

–Averette is the managing editor for The Clanton Advertiser.