By Maggie Varner
The University of Louisville has made great strides towards recovering from all flood damages on campus. Many offices and classes have moved back to their original locations, and those that have yet to return to the School of Education will be moved in by Nov. 2.
According to John Drees, U of L spokesman, the university allotted $15 million to flood recovery efforts, and he expressed his appreciation to all workers.
“The university did extremely well with this situation, and the crew should be applauded,” said Drees. “We have a really strong team that works fast and well to get our campus back on track.”
Another office that recently reopened was the Metropolitan College. This is a partnership program at the University of Louisville that works with community organizations and businesses, intended to prepare students for the professional workplace. This office, located in the basement of the Houchens Building, was one of the many locations on campus that had been damaged during the flood.
Courtney Abboud, director of workforce and student development for the Metropolitan College, had a positive outlook on the flood and was relieved that there wasn’t more damage.
“Almost everything was salvageable,” said Abboud. “Natural disasters happen, but everyone who helped the relief effort here on campus did a great job.”
The Metropolitan College was temporarily located in Stevenson Hall throughout the first half of the semester, though it never experienced a disruption of services, other than on the day of the flood. Beginning on Monday, Oct. 26, the Metropolitan College office in Houchens became fully functioning once again.
Not only were the Houchens and Education buildings affected by the flood, but the Kent School of Social Work also had to make efforts to recover from this natural disaster.
“The damage at the Kent School was very minimal compared to the damage in the Houchens Building,” said Pamela Yankeelov, associate dean of student services for the Kent School. “Oppenheimer Hall suffered some slight damage. The basement was flooded, but the employees at the Physical Plant worked very efficiently to organize the cleanup effort.”
College of Education and Human Development classes will be moved back to the School of Education building on Nov. 2. The university is nearing the end of all flood recovery efforts. Within the next week, all buildings will be back in use. The last building to be reopened will be the Fairfax building, containing university communications and marketing.
