Good afternoon,
Out of an abundance of caution, we are requesting that everyone take certain steps to help prepare the college and themselves for any impacts from the approaching storm. Before leaving today, faculty, staff, and students should shut down any non-essential experiments, computers, and equipment. Please monitor weather sites and https://alerts.fsu.edu/ for updated information about the storm and any university closures (as FSU is responsible for our building, we will follow their schedule for closures). If a closure for Tallahassee is announced, access to the building will be provided prior to the closure to shutdown critical systems. After that time, access to the building will only be permitted with prior approval and coordination with FSU Police until the closure ends.
If a closure is announced, please be prepared to come to the building prior to the closure to do the items below (feel free to do any of these items in advance if you so choose):
1) All electrical equipment and computers should be shut down and unplugged from the wall. (Turning off power strips is also acceptable.)
2) Close the regulators on all gas cylinders.
3) Take home any perishable food from refrigerators/freezers.
4) Dump any ice stored in freezers. If this melts during an outage, it often causes damage to the office area.
5) Remove and store all chemicals from fume hoods (fume hoods will not function in a power outage).
6) If you have cell cultures, have a plan in place to store critical items in LN2 or dry ice.
A great resource for personal emergency preparedness , including how to "get a plan" for you and your family, can be found at https://floridadisaster.org/. Also, in addition to the busy holiday weekend, people evacuating from other areas in the state will cause an increase in road traffic. If you are traveling by car, please allow extra time to reach your destination in case of any delays.
Please check your emails for any additional updates that may be sent out.
Stay safe during the storm!