Hurricane Season IT Checklist
The storm damage we see after a Tampa Bay hurricane isn't mostly wind. It's water on the floor, the surge that hits when the power comes back, and a backup nobody tested. All three are preventable with an afternoon in June.
Every season the same three calls come in the week after a storm: a server that sat in an inch of water, a workstation that survived the hurricane and died when the power returned, and a backup that turned out to have stopped running in March. None of those are bad luck. Here's the list, split into the week you have time, the day before, the outage itself, and the part everyone gets wrong: after.
The Short Version
Test a restore now, not when the sky is gray. The day before: back up, shut down, unplug every cord including the network and coax, and get equipment off the floor. After the storm: wait for stable power, check for water, and replace any surge protector that took a hit. Cloud email keeps running through all of it, which is most of your remote-work plan.
Early Season: The Week You Have Time
- Test a restore. Pick a file and a full machine image and actually bring them back. A backup that has never been restored is a theory. See home backup strategy and managed server backup.
- Confirm the cloud backup is current on every machine, not just the one you happen to check.
- Photograph equipment and serial numbers for the insurance claim you hope not to file.
- Decide your recovery time. How long can the office be down before it matters? That number chooses the plan. See backup vs. disaster recovery.
- Check the UPS batteries. They last three to five years, and Florida heat shortens that. Our UPS guide covers the test.
- Update firmware on the router and any network storage now. Storm week is not update week.
- Write it down on paper: account recovery info, your IT provider's number, the ISP account number, the alarm company.
- Plan for losing internet: a phone hotspot for a home, a second carrier or satellite service for a business that can't go dark.
- Remote work: could staff work from home for a week if the office is closed? With cloud email and files it's a policy question, not a technical one.
The Day Before
Run a final backup and let it finish
Then confirm it completed. The last backup before a storm is the one that matters.
Shut everything down properly
Workstations, then the server or network storage, then the UPS. Don't leave the UPS running on battery into an empty office; it only protects equipment that's on.
Unplug from the wall, and from everything else
Power, network cable, coax, phone line. Lightning and surges come in on every wire, not just the power cord.
Get equipment off the floor and away from windows
Desk height is usually enough for a home. In a business, the rack and the server go as high as they can safely sit.
Bag it
A trash bag over a tower or a printer handles a wet ceiling. Cover the rack with plastic.
Take the essentials with you
A laptop, the rotating backup drive if you keep one, and the paper list.
Charge and download
Power banks and laptops charged; offline maps and the key documents downloaded to the phone.
Set the auto-replies and forward the phones
Email auto-reply on, and the office number forwarded to a cell that will be somewhere with signal.
During the Outage
A UPS buys minutes, not days. Its job is a clean shutdown, which you already did. If you're running a generator, the power it makes is rough: run electronics only through a line-interactive or online UPS or a quality surge protector, and don't plug a UPS into a cheap inverter generator without checking that the two are compatible; the UPS guide explains the waveform problem. Don't power on anything that got wet, and don't run a server on a generator that's flickering.
After the Power Comes Back
- Wait. The first hour after restoration is when the surges and brownouts happen. Give the grid time to settle.
- Plug in surge protectors and the UPS first, then the equipment. Replace any surge strip that took a hit or is more than a few years old; they wear out silently and don't tell you.
- Check for water and condensation before powering on. A machine that sat in a humid, closed building can sweat inside. Give it an hour in air conditioning.
- Power up in order: modem and router, then switches, then the server or network storage, then workstations.
- Check that backups resumed and that the drives are healthy. The drive monitoring on every maintenance plan flags a drive that took a surge before it fails outright.
- Check the internet, the phone system and the cameras. Anything with a battery backup or a cloud account may need a sign-in.
If It Got Wet
Don't power it on to see if it works. Water, especially brackish water, makes a data-recovery job, not a dry-it-out job, and the first hour after a wet drive is the same as the first hour after a failing one: stop, and don't try things. See the first hour after a drive fails and our data recovery services.
| Item | Home | Business |
|---|---|---|
| Backups | Cloud backup current; a restore tested | Same, plus a server image and an off-site copy |
| UPS | Clean shutdown; batteries checked | Same, plus a generator-compatible unit for anything that must stay up |
| Shutdown | Unplug everything; elevate | Same, plus the rack covered and the server first |
| Internet | Phone hotspot | Second carrier or satellite failover |
| Work | Laptop and documents with you | Remote-work plan, phone forwarding, cloud files |
| Insurance | Photos and serials | Inventory, plus a look at the cyber and business-interruption coverage |
Quick Self-Check
| Question | If “no” or “not sure”... |
|---|---|
| Have you restored a file from backup this year? | Do it this week |
| Are the UPS batteries under five years old? | Check the date on them |
| Could your business run from home for a week? | Worth a call |
| Do you know where your equipment sits relative to the flood line? | Elevate it |
Get a Storm-Readiness Check
We'll test the restore, check the UPS, set up the remote-work pieces and write the shutdown list for your office, before the season gets busy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I leave the UPS on during the storm?
No. Shut everything down and switch the UPS off too. It only protects equipment that's running, and a nearby lightning strike can take the UPS out along with whatever is plugged into it. Unplugging is the protection.
Does a surge protector protect against lightning?
Against the surge from a nearby strike, partly, once, and then it's spent. Nothing on a store shelf protects against a direct hit. A whole-house surge device at the panel helps; unplugging helps more.
Can I keep the server running on a generator?
Only through an online, double-conversion UPS that cleans up the generator's output, and only if the generator is sized for the load. A portable generator and a consumer UPS is a combination that damages both. Ask before the season.
Is cloud backup enough?
For the files, yes, if it's current and you've tested a restore. For getting the office working again you also need a plan for the hardware and the time it takes to restore onto it. That's the difference between backup and disaster recovery.
What about the smart home and the cameras?
Cameras usually ride out the storm. Keep the recorder off the floor and on the UPS, and expect the smart devices to reconnect on their own when power and Wi-Fi return. Anything that doesn't is a sign-in, not a failure.
More Guides
UPS topology, waveform and sizing math, explained without the marketing numbers.
The 3-2-1 rule, what ransomware changes about it, and the set-and-forget version.
RPO and RTO in plain English, and why your cloud apps still need a backup.
What to do (and what to stop doing) when a drive starts clicking.
The issues we see most often in Tampa Bay homes, and what to try first.
PoE vs. Wi-Fi, recorder vs. cloud, and the Florida weather part.
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