John Bryan had planned on receiving his master’s degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine in August.

Unfortunately, due to the July 1 flooding of the Veterinary building, that did not happen.

“It basically destroyed the lab I was working in,” said Bryan, a graduate student from Athens. “(The flood) set me back a year.”

On July 1 Athens received approximately 5 1/2 inches of rain. The water collected at the Northwest end of the Veterinary building, at the neck of a funnel system coming down from Lumpkin Street, said Keith W. Prasse, dean of the Vet school.

The water pooled around the windows of the pathology department and radiology laboratories located in the building’s basement, eventually bursting through the windows and flooding the building.

Eyewitnesses reported manhole covers floating along in streams created by the large amounts of rain water, indicating an obstruction of the storm drainage system, Prasse said.

Barry Harmon, head of the pathology department, arrived on the scene at about 10 p.m. and said flood water stood as high as 5 1/2 feet in parts of the basement.

Harmon, Prasse and others at the scene worked late into the night retrieving equipment either submersed or floating in water.

“The pathology department was affected the most,” Harmon said.

The department had to relocate to a nearby building for about six weeks before the labs and offices could be reopened.

Radiology laboratories also were heavily damaged, resulting in the loss of Computed Tomography (CT) scanners and imaging systems.

Disaster Services Inc., the Atlanta-based company in charge of restoring the University’s Main Library, was hired to repair building damages, such as replacing water-damaged carpet and sheetrock walls.

In all, damages are estimated between $1.5 and $1.7 million, Prasse said.

In addition to losing valuable equipment, many at the college also lost research data and time.

Zhen Fu, a pathology professor, lost an estimated six months worth of research. Fu has requested help in recovering lost data from the National Institutes of Health, but has not heard back from them, Prasse said.

Most of the faculty have returned to the building, he said, but workers at the building are not completely finished.

Many renovations were already planned for this fall, and workers have simply transitioned from repairing flood damage to working on the previously planned renovations.

As for Bryan, he said the latest estimates he has received indicate the lab he was working in will not be functional until January.

Bryan also is working toward his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and said his Master’s degree now will have to be put on the back burner due to the large amount of time he will have to put into the D.V.M. program this fall and spring semesters.

Bryan does not expect to receive his Master’s degree until August 2004.