It'll be some months and hundreds of thousands of dollars before McGill University gets back to normal following yesterday's flood resulting from a water main break.

Twelve buildings flooded, 80 classes cancelled, 24 others relocated along with a dozen laboratory courses, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages: that's the preliminary impact of the flood damage.

VP of administration and finance Michael Di Grappa said the James administration building was among those that had to shut down for the day.

"400 people here who have been relocated, hundreds others in other buildings, so easily in the thousands when you add it all up that've been affected by this incident," Di Grappa said.

Other buildings such as the James Annex next door housing the graphic design staff for publications were not so lucky - it may be months before it's ready for business again. They're looking for temporary rental space in the meantime. The basement of the Wilson building with the nursing department was completely flooded, with water levels nearly reaching the ceiling. There were no reports of injuries on campus. Di Grappa said it was too early to talk about any legal action or insurance costs.

Photos: Supriya Dwivedi, Kelly Krzepicki

Photos, video: Shuyee Lee