University officials are closely monitoring the severe weather that is forecast for 9 p.m. tonight, Thursday, April 18 in Northwest Florida. All UWF locations will close at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 18 due to a severe weather system along the Gulf Coast. This includes all classes, events, campus activities and online courses.
If you are enrolled in an evening class, please arrive to class at the normal time and you will be released promptly at 7 p.m., unless you hear otherwise from your faculty member.
According to the most recent update from the National Weather Service, a line of strong to severe storms will move across our area beginning this evening through tonight. The primary threats include damaging winds up to 70 mph and tornadoes, including potential strong tornadoes.
Normal University operations, classes, events and campus activities will resume at 5:59 a.m. on Friday, April 19. If conditions change, University officials will notify all students, faculty and staff.
Residential Students: If necessary, a decision may be made to evacuate UWF residential students to the on-campus shelter. This decision will be made as the storm progresses and communicated in a timely manner to residential students. Dining Services will work with Housing and Residence Life on facilitating dining options during the closure. These options will be communicated to residential students through Housing and Residence Life staff.
Faculty and Staff: Before leaving work today, faculty and staff are asked to follow precautionary measures to prepare work areas for the weather. Please consult with your building emergency coordinator for details and further instruction. All essential personnel are asked to report to work. If you are essential personnel, your supervisor will notify you.
Florida Virtual Campus locations remain open at this time.
Dining Services: All retail dining locations that are normally open beyond 7 p.m. will close tonight at 7 p.m. The Nautilus Market will close one hour early tonight at 8 p.m.
To ensure you receive future University communications, confirm that your contact information is up-to-date in the University’s communication system, “Mobile Alert.” Log in to my.uwf.edu and search “Mobile Alert” to update and add contact information.
University officials encourage students, faculty and staff to learn more about storm preparedness at uwf.edu/uwfstorm. Weather information is available by tuning into WUWF at 88.1FM or online at wuwf.org. Updates from the National Weather Service are available at http://www.weather.gov/mob/ and https://twitter.com/NWSMobile.
The University will continue to update and communicate with students, faculty and staff via email, uwf.edu, facebook.com/westfl, twitter.com/uwf and the UWF Mobile Alert text messaging system. To learn more about Mobile Alert, visit uwf.edu/mobilealert.
In the event of an emergency, please contact the UWF Police Department at 850.474.2415.
