Hurricane Milton Lessons Learned

Hurricane Milton hit Hernando County late on Wednesday, Oct. 9 and early on the following day. The hurricane was both a wind and rain event, but the storm surge was smaller than Hurricane Helene for most of the coast.

The wind led to multiple power outages that took days to fix, with many trees falling on the power lines. A large number of trees went down during the storm, which blocked roads and disabled power lines. There were a significant number of power crews out restoring service. For many people, this resulted in less than half the time for power to be restored compared to Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Gas availability was a challenge for several days after the storm as dozens of cars formed queues for the pump that cluttered roadways.

The flooding also had effects long after the storm had passed. Several roads were still closed a couple of days after the storm as the water flowed downhill. The full effects of the Withlacoochee flooding were still felt almost a week after the storm had passed.

Lessons Learned from Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton knocked out the internet and power. This resulted in many businesses becoming unreachable by phone since their phone systems depend on internet access. If you have a generator and rely on propane, you need more than the office phone number of your provider. It might also be a good idea to have a backup propane delivery company if you own your propane tank. This also applies to any other business that you rely on. You will need multiple ways of contacting them if the phone system is not able to be contacted.

Cell phone service was spotty because many people who were without phone and internet were using the cell phone network and some cell phone towers were damaged by the storm. Starlink offered a cell phone texting service for free for certain phones, but this only lets you text 911 and your emergency contacts. Many people do not set their emergency contacts on the phone, but if you want to be able to contact them via this service, they need to be set.

Starlink also offered a month of free service for areas affected by the hurricane, but you need Starlink equipment to take advantage of the offer. The Hernando Sun tried it out, and with partial blockage by trees, we saw download speeds of 136 Mbps and upload speeds of .48 Mbps.

Many people have stopped carrying paper insurance cards. If you rely on a phone application for your insurance cards, you need to check if they have an option to add them to your digital wallet. This way, you can have access to your insurance cards even if there is no cell data service or WiFi.