BATON ROUGE, La. (KNOE 8 News) - Dormitories will be reopened to LSU students following an evacuation Monday of the Baton Rouge campus after a bomb threat, officials said.
It still isn't clear if students will be allowed back in late Monday night or early Tuesday.
30,000 students, faculty and workers were ordered to evacuate Louisiana State University's main campus late Monday morning following the threat.
The evacuation was prompted by a threat phoned into 911 about 10:32 a.m., university spokeswoman Kristine Calongne said. The caller didn't direct the threat to any specific area of the campus.
The university issued a statement on its website announcing the evacuation an hour later, then distributed the information through text messages, emails and social media.
"A bomb threat has been reported on the LSU campus," the statement said. "Please evacuate as calmly and quickly as possible."
"Monday ... is a very big class day, so I think the majority of that group was probably on campus at the time," Calongne said.
By mid-afternoon, the LSU campus was largely deserted and roads were closed, though some people and cars were still moving about campus.
The university sent a follow-up message to students at 1:36 p.m. telling them not to return.
"LSU continues to investigate the bomb threat reported earlier today. Please stay off campus unless directed to return," the message said.
Catherine Lacoste, an 18-year-old freshman and architecture major, said she received notification of the bomb threat through the emergency text message system while working in a studio on a project. She double-checked the information and then evacuated. She didn't seem worried about the threat, however.
"I'm going to go home, take a nap and hopefully campus will be open again when I wake up," Lacoste said.
State police bomb technicians were on the scene, said Louisiana State Police Capt. Doug Cain. He said authorities were talking to their counterparts in Texas, North Dakota and Ohio to see if there were any similarities to threats universities in those states received Friday.
University officials in those states also evacuated their campuses, but police found no explosives.
Calongne said she doesn't know of any other time the entire flagship university campus was evacuated.
"I've been at LSU since 1990 - if you count my student years - and I don't ever recall us having an evacuation of the whole campus," she said.
