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ESTERO — Florida Gulf Coast University is closed for business today and on-campus students likely will be ushered into Alico Arena this morning as those in charge brace for Tropical Storm Fay.

The Emergency Advisory Council, consisting of FGCU administrators and campus police, made those decisions Monday morning and were continuing to monitor the situation through the day and night.

“We've got people who drive in from counties all over Southwest Florida,” said FGCU spokesperson Susan Evans. “We have to weigh all the factors and base our decisions on the best analysis from the hurricane center that we have. We've got this thing down pretty well, unfortunately, over the years in terms of what to do and what steps need to be in place.”

FGCU officials wanted all but on-campus students and those designated as essential personnel off campus by 10 Monday night.

FGCU plans to re-open at 8 a.m. Wednesday “unless weather conditions determine otherwise,” Evans said.

Fortunately, the timing is good for this. Classes do not begin until Aug. 25 and only around 100 residential students are around. They, along with every faculty and staff member, were informed via e-mail and through news outlets of today's closing and the planned evacuation of residential students into Alico Arena this morning.

“If this were two weeks from now, we'd have about 2,000 students to try to figure out what to do with,” Evans said. “At this point, it look like 100, 120 at the most. We have some pre-semester ramping up going on – kids buying books, orientations scheduled and there are student-athletes here,” Evans said.

The move to Alico Arena in this case is not necessarily because of structure concerns.

“If we lose power in the residence buildings, that means our safety systems go down – things like fire alarms,” Evans said. “That's a precaution. We'll have staff in (Alico Arena) to make sure everyone is safe.”

Generators will keep Alico Arena, which has served in this capacity several times prior, operational as long as necessary.

“In the past when we've had people in Alico Arena, the generators have never gone down on us,”Evans said. “We plan on these things all year long and we've been planning for these things for many years.”