West Lake Village has finally stepped into the light. According to an update released at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, West Lake electricity has been restored, and students will be able to return to their residences beginning at 2 p.m., Sept. 16. 
Yesterday, residents were advised that they would have to move into the Alico Arena shelter until West Lake became habitable, joining the 1.3 million Floridians who are still without power one week after Irma made landfall. 
Fortunately, this will not be the case. 
“We are happy to report power has been restored to West Lake Village. Staff from the Office of Housing and Residence Life are in the process of completing a second walk through of all the units,” Dr. Brian Fisher, director of the Office of Housing and Residence Life, said in his update on the FGCU Housing Facebook and Twitter page. 
Although residents are allowed to start returning to West Lake later this afternoon, Fisher told students to “delay your return for as long as possible to allow the local area to continue to return to normal operations.”   
At this time, FGCU is urging students to come to campus only if they need to. 
While the University sustained less damage than expected, cleanup efforts are still underway, and with a hard reopening for the university on Wednesday, campus roads will be flooded with personnel putting the final touches on campus. 
In addition to the main campus, West Lake Village sustained minor damage from Hurricane Irma. 
“Very few units received damage,” Fisher said. “We had a small number of units that had some water intrusion. We had one unit where the window was broken. We started repairs where possible, but that was difficult without power. Starting today, we will work to make the necessary repairs to these units.” 
If a West Lake resident notices damage to their dorm that has not been repaired, they should report the problem in the housing portal and complete a work order. 
In the meantime, all students who live on-campus should continue to check their Eagle e-mail for direct updates from Housing officials and continue to visit the Eagle News website for the latest updates.