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ROCK HILL, S.C. – Winthrop University prepared for classes to start after a weekend fire badly damaged three buildings.

Classes were canceled Monday. While students took advantage of the time off, faculty and staff scrambled to get things back on track and restoration crews worked to clean up.

The school kept students in the loop throughout the weekend through e-mail and text message alerts.

“A bunch of us were freaking out and a bunch of people were packing up their stuff because it was just getting really bad, so it helped us to calm down and refocus," said Anna Wells, a student at Winthrop.

While much of the campus is roped off to keep students safe, restoration crews were hard at work cleaning up the buildings. University officials allowed teachers and staff inside Monday afternoon to recover whatever they could, including valuable computer hard drives.

“We set up a center where recovery and restoration folks will be working on getting all the information off of those that we possibly can," said university spokeswoman Rebecca Masters.

Classes in the three buildings will be moved to new locations for the remainder of the semester.

Fire investigators still haven't released the cause of the fire, but at this time believe it was electrical.