All USF campuses are closed until at least Saturday in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. 

Classes are also canceled on Friday and Saturday, according to a universitywide email sent out Thursday afternoon.

Teams from USF began an assessment of all campuses Thursday morning, according to a USF website update. 

The university statement warned students not to come back to campus until notified that it is safe to return.

Related: Hurricane Milton forces closure of USF residence halls – The Oracle

USF is also working to open residence halls and dining options “as soon as possible,” according to the email. All USF dorms were closed in preparation for the hurricane.

Residential students without a place to stay were evacuated to Jennings Middle School, a Hillsborough County shelter. Students will remain there until it is safe to return, according to USF’s FAQ page.

Related: As Hurricane Milton approaches, here’s where USF students can evacuate to – The Oracle

A decision regarding Monday classes will be made after each campus’ conditions have been determined.

The university will not resume normal operations either in-person or remotely on Friday, according to the email. Only essential personnel will work.

Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday near Siesta Key, around 70 miles from the USF Tampa campus.

The hurricane brought a “life-threatening” storm surge, “damaging” winds and flooding rains across portions of Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Flash flood emergency warnings were in effect at 10 p.m. for the Tampa Bay area as Milton continued moving inland.

Flooding around the Tampa campus has already been reported, according to the City of Tampa’s flooding map. Some of the areas and streets affected include Fowler Avenue and N. 22nd Street, which are located by the University Mall.

Photos obtained by The Oracle also show flooding on campus around the USF Bookstore and the Carol & Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare. The bench near the Bookstore also appears to have been damaged by the wind.

Isaac Toral, a USF 2024 alum, walked to the Tampa campus around 10 a.m. Thursday to pick his car up from the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility. He said he lives across the street from Fowler Avenue and decided to park his car on campus for extra safety.

Even though getting his car was the primary reason to visit campus, Toral said he used to work in the Marshall Student Center as a student and wanted to check how it looked post-Milton.

“Some of the benches where I used to study outside the Bookstore are absolutely destroyed,” Toral said. “It was just kind of shocking to see so many little things that now are just gone.”

The view Toral said stood out to him the most was the outside of the Carol & Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare because it is now a “complete lagoon.” There is no way to get over to the building, he said.

Many USFPD cars were seen patrolling the area, and USF staff was assessing damages, Toral said.

“I didn’t expect to see some of the damages, like metal on the floor outside of the MSC and the benches destroyed,” Toral said. “It was a little bit surprising, but at least the buildings seemed to be fine, which is a good thing.”

CNN videos of the area show the “major flooding” on Fowler Avenue, with cars being partially submerged under the water. 

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office rescued 135 residents at Great American Assisted Living, which is located just off Fowler Avenue. The assisted living center is located just a couple miles from the USF Tampa campus.

“This is extraordinary to see this type of flooding, especially in this type of area,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a video posted to Facebook on Thursday. “The university area is usually a dry area. To see this unprecedented flooding, I can only imagine how scary it was.”

Over 2,000 power outage reports were made at and around the USF Tampa university area as of 2:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Tampa Electric (TECO)’s website.

Off-campus residents can report power outages on TECO’s outage map or by texting OUT to 27079.

Due to the extensive storm damage and debris, restoration of power may take days, if not weeks, in some of the hardest-hit areas, according to TECO’s website.

More than 6,000 utility workers nationwide are in Tampa to support recovery efforts.

Here are a few pictures of Hurricane Milton’s impact on the USF Tampa campus captured by Toral.

This story was updated.

Additional reporting by Camila Gomez.