4 Florida universities announce closure plans as Hurricane Milton approaches
MIAMI: As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida, four public universities have announced plans to close. and the Florida Panthers has canceled its Champions Ring Ceremony on Monday.
Schools
All public school districts in South Florida say their campuses will be open Monday with future days not announced. That includes school districts in Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach counties.
Four public universities -- University of South Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida Gulf Coast and New College of Florida -- will be closing their campuses. This also happened during Hurricane Helene.
UCF in Orlando will suspend operations on all campuses and online classes from Tuesday through Thursday. Standard operations will continue through 11:59 p.m. Monday, and are planned to resume at 6 a.m. Friday,. UCF Housing will remain open but campus services will be closed.
All USF in-person classes and offices will be closed Monday through Wednesday. A decision hasn't been made about Thursday. As of now, residence halls on the Tampa campus will remain open but the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee ones will close at noon Monday.
Gulf Coast classes will shift to remote operations Monday, including classes. The campus in Lee County will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday. A decision about Thursday operations will be announced by Wednesday. Plans are to keep the residence halls open.
New College will close its Sarasota campus from Monday through Friday. All students living on campus will be evacuated by noon Monday and for those with nowhere to go Sudakoff Conference Center will be available as a shelter.
The University of Florida in Gainesville has not announced closures at this time.
Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers announced Sunday "that out of an abundance of caution" Monday's Champions Ring Ceremony will not continue as planned. But opening night Tuesday against the Boston Bruins at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise is still scheduled.
"As this event would take resources from first responders and service providers, we have made the tough decision to cancel our Champions Ring Ceremony out of an abundance of caution for the safety of all involved. We will instead distribute our championship rings privately," President and CEO Matt Caldwell said.
The Panthers said fans can expect a full refund for their donation at their point of purchase.
Zoo Miami
Due to inclement weather, Zoo Miami closed Sunday. No plans for future days were annonced.