Hunkering down at Jennings Middle School wasn’t as bad as Luiza Medeiros De Campos thought it would be.

As a freshman international student from Brazil, she talked with her family and decided to ride out Hurricane Milton in her dorm room, just like she did during Hurricane Helene.

But when she learned she would have to go to a hurricane shelter with less than a day’s notice, she was concerned.

“At first, I was worried because I had never been into any situation like this before,” she said. “I had never experienced a shelter.”

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

Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night near Siesta Key with wind gusts of 93 mph and over 11 inches of rain recorded in Tampa.

By 8 a.m. Tuesday, when the dorms closed, Medeiros De Campos walked to the Bull Runner bus check-in armed with a bean bag, a week’s worth of clothes and lots of water for what would be a two-night stay. 

Prior to evacuating, students were told to bring bedding, medication, important documents and other essentials to the shelter.

Related: USF closes all campuses until Saturday due to Hurricane Milton – The Oracle 

Medeiros De Campos, a mass communications major, said she wasn’t sure what to expect, but felt better knowing the shelter was only for the 145 USF residents and other University of Tampa students.

“I felt very safe and I knew everyone there was going through the same experience,” she said.

She was part of a group of six friends forced to seek shelter at the middle school about seven miles from campus.

Related: USF St. Pete residents found shelter in Tampa campus amid Hurricane Helene – The Oracle 

The shelter provided the evacuees with “everything,” including showers in the school’s locker rooms, meals from USF dining, including Argos and Starbucks, sodas and plenty of water, she said. 

Helena Giotto, a freshman industrial engineering major, is also from Brazil. 

Giotto said the group of six shared two air mattresses they had brought since they didn’t win the “raffle” for one of the 20 cots provided. She said sleeping was one of the hardest parts of staying at the shelter.

“There were people that were in worse conditions than us, like people who only took a blanket and they had to sleep on the floor,” Giotto said.

Related: USF closes campuses for Hurricane Milton – The Oracle 

Medeiros De Campos said most evacuees were international students like her.

“It was like a community,” she said.

Staff, including 15 people from USF, provided games and cookies throughout the day and hosted the University Police’s (UP) therapy dog, Bailey.

“I think that the staff there was so important to make us feel calm during the hurricane because everyone was so nice and positive,” Giotto said. “So, I think being with them was really, really calming.”

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

Medeiros De Campos had just woken up from a nap when staff announced that they needed to move from the gymnasium because the generators would only work in the middle school’s classrooms.

As the outer bands of Hurricane Milton were battering Tampa around 6:30 pm., the evacuees broke into groups of 10 to move to classrooms.

The groups were escorted by UP officers and she said she was able to change buildings “very safely.”

By 10 p.m., the shelter lost power but there were enough lights in the classrooms to play cards. Giotto said they played Uno and some Brazilian card games.

Medeiros De Campos said it was easier to get to know fellow evacuees when they moved to the classrooms and were off their phones because there was no internet.

“When we moved to the classrooms, that’s when we actually talked more to other people,” she said.

Giotto said she also got to make friends with other students staying in the shelter.

“Definitely, I’d say I made friends in the shelter, so that was like a good thing of this experience,” she said.

The students who evacuated were brought back to campus Thursday around 5 p.m. and allowed to stay in their dorm rooms. Only the students who went to the shelter are allowed back on campus.

Related: As hurricane season approaches, here’s how USF students should prepare – The Oracle 

Giotto said Juniper Poplar evacuees were not allowed back in their dorms, but are staying in The Recreation and Wellness Center. She said the parking lot leading to Juniper Poplar Hall was flooded.

A university spokesperson confirmed that some students are being housed in the Campus Recreation building.

Photos obtained by the Oracle show areas outside the Bookstore and near the Carol & Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare were flooded. Lakes at Simmons Park by Juniper-Poplar Hall also overflowed onto sidewalks and surrounding areas.

Major roads by the Tampa campus, including Fowler Avenue, were flooded as well.

Giotto said making friends with the other evacuees made being back at campus better because she feels like she knows everyone.

“It’s good because we’re just hanging out with the people we met,” she said.

Despite the initial worry and uncertainty, Medeiros De Campos said the experience wasn’t bad.

“USF really took good care of us,” she said.