Maria Aleksandrova hid in her bathroom at The Flats at 4200 as Hurricane Milton pelted the Tampa Bay area.

Alone with her cat, Donut, the Russian international student said she prayed for her safety.

“Unfortunately, I just did not have the opportunity to evacuate,” said Aleksandrova, whose apartment is across from campus on Fletcher Avenue. “But I put my faith in God and I made it out.”

Four days after Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in Siesta Key, Aleksandrova returned to campus – seeking some sense of normalcy.

“I’ve been home for a while,” she said. “I miss the university. I need the university. I love being here.”

Related: PHOTOS: USF Tampa before and after Hurricane Milton – The Oracle

Though the Tampa campus won’t reopen until Monday, the university opened the first floor of the Marshall Student Center (MSC), where students can get electricity and air conditioning. 

Around 80 students came to the MSC on Sunday afternoon – some looking for a sense of their old routine like Aleksandrova, but others simply needed to charge their phones and connect to WiFi.

Related: USF to reopen Tampa dorms, except Juniper-Poplar Hall, Sunday – The Oracle

Milan Khatter, a biomedical sciences junior, lives about 10 minutes from campus. She said she hasn’t had power since the hurricane made landfall.

She came to the MSC to charge her devices and to get some studying in.

Though power and some cold air might usually be a given, many around the campus are still affected by the outages caused by Milton. 

Over 270,000 customers reported an outage in Hillsborough County as of 4 p.m. Sunday, according to Power Outage.us. 

What’s been most “confusing” for Khatter is the aftermath of the hurricane – roads being blocked off and the uncertainty of when everything will reopen. 

Khatter said she came to campus on Saturday as well, hoping to find refuge at the Library but was disappointed to find it was still closed.

“It felt kind of like a ghost town yesterday when I was driving here,” she said.

The university posted on Instagram on Sunday that the Library is “closed due to weather.” The post said reopening is “uncertain pending damage assessment.”

Despite the confusion with reopenings, Khatter said she’s understanding of the circumstances.

“I feel like everyone’s just trying to do their best,” she said. 

University staff also had tables with snacks, such as chips and oranges, and cold water for those who came to the MSC on Sunday. All visitors had to show their USF ID to get into the building.

Helen Pham, an international student from Vietnam, also doesn’t have any electricity at her Urban Place apartment on North 50th Street. 

But the reason Pham came to the MSC was because she missed the university.

Pham actually stayed on-campus during the hurricane – at Pizzo K-8 School, a Hillsborough County hurricane shelter located on USF Bull Run Drive. 

“In the beginning, I decided to stay [at my house]” she said. “My mom in my home country was really nervous about that, so she forced me to go there.”

Related: Hurricane Milton forced USF students to evacuate campus: ‘Like a community’ – The Oracle

Pham said she was part of a group of 10 friends who decided to evacuate to the shelter for a two-night stay. She packed some clothes and some food – only realizing once she got there that she’d be unable to cook.

While at the shelter, Pham slept on the floor, but said the experience wasn’t as bad as others would think.

“It was a great experience because I had time to bond with my friends and many other families,” she said. 

Pham said, if there’s a positive to the situation, it’s the extra time to study for exams. 

“I have a lot of spare time, but I think it’s great,” she said. “I have more time to revise and prepare for my test.”

Though students will have classes on Monday, they will be asynchronous, meaning they won’t have to meet at a certain time and no due dates can be set for Monday. 

As everyone continues to deal with the effects of the hurricane, Aleksandrova said she hopes there is a “smooth transition” back into classes.

The university announced in a universitywide email on Sunday that classes would resume for the rest of the week. However, professors can choose the modality – such as remote, in-person or asynchronous – to provide some “flexibility.”

She said most of her professors have provided guidance during the storm and that she appreciated the university’s updates and communications.

“I have faith that they’re doing the best they can do.” she said. “If I was in the situation where I manage an entire university, what would I do? I don’t know.”