With the end of hurricane season having just passed, Floridians look back at the flurry of severe storms that hit Florida’s Gulf Coast and anticipate the potential strength and frequency of storms to come.
While many people know to get non-perishable food and clean water before a hurricane, not as many people consider how they can be technologically prepared for the storm and the days the follow.
Nearly a full week after Hurricane Milton, Spectrum Internet reported outages for more than 367,000 Floridians, and with reports of poor cell service due to increased traffic and loss of infrastructure, many people had spotty communication at best.
There are many solutions to stay connected when communication services are weakened, ranging from simple and affordable to complex and expensive. Whether you take time for a certification, spend money for equipment or services, the following technological options might ensure your ability to contact family and friends.
Or even emergency services. "We have a member of our amateur radio emergency services team who lived on Sanibel. He was a brand new amateur radio operator," said Rich Schnieders, the emergency coordinator for the Lee County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, or ARES. "After Ian, his house was gone and he was able to call in a Medevac to pick up somebody that was having a cardiac event right next door to him, and bring the helicopter right to where it needed to be and save the life of the individual."
Schnieders said he has seen many other times when amateur radio was used to save lives in a disaster.
Even professional radio services on Sanibel lost contact with Lee County officials after that infrastructure was damaged in Ian. However, since amateur radio doesn’t rely on the same infrastructure, those operators were able to help the island maintain contact.
"(After Ian) The city government of Sanibel realized the usefulness of amateur radio and actually was asking some of their employees to go ahead and, advance of any more storms, to go out and get their licenses," said Jeff Kennedy, public information officer for Lee County ARES. Kennedy helped administer the testing to get Sanibel government employees certified.
The president of the Fort Myers Amateur Radio Club, Steve Clayton, said the hobby of amateur radio can not only be useful, but also a fun way to communicate with people across the country, or even the world
"If somebody has ever had any radio experience, walkie talkies as a kid, CB radio, and you want to move to the next level of professionalism (even though we're amateurs), we encourage you get your license. We'll be glad to help you out and encourage you along," said Clayton.
Ham radios may be the more affordable way to ensure you can maintain communications in a disaster. A 10-year radio license from the Federal Communications Commission is $35. Hand-held radios can be purchased for $25 on Amazon.
Satellite internet, while not as affordable as a radio license, can keep people completely connected to high-speed internet as long as electricity is available. For people who value consistent connectivity, satellite internet may be worth the extra dollars in exchange for the ability to connect to work or family regardless of weather conditions.
In the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton, Elon Musk made his satellite subscription service, Starlink, free for people in affected areas.
This technology has made many consider whether high-speed, ground-based systems are worth the potential loss of service during severe weather. Dean Taylor, director of technical account management and a retired sergeant from a large metropolitan sheriff's office, spoke about why satellite internet is becoming the more reliable option.
"In ground-based systems, if infrastructure is damaged, it obviously takes a long time to replenish that infrastructure, rebuild it," said Taylor. "Whereas, if you move those services to the sky, the connection is based on you being able to point something up in the sky where there's devices up there already and they're not affected by weather.
"In public safety, we use a model called P.A.C.E., which is primary, alternate, contingent, and emergency. In the case of Starlink, the way you're solving a ground-based infrastructure is thinking about that like as an alternate, right? 'What can I do to get my connection outside of the loop that's going to be damaged by, you know, whatever the nature of the disaster is? Taking all that infrastructure down, how can I get more quickly back to restore my communication?'"
Some Starlink plans do offer the ability to pause subscriptions, meaning you utilize and pay for the service only when you need it. And with some satellite receivers now about the size of the average laptop, it could also be useful for long road trips or traveling into remote areas.
The smaller receiver is the more expensive of the satellites currently available, costing about $700, not including the monthly subscription cost. The smaller systems offer additional benefits like the ability to be powered through USB-C ports, or allowing power banks or car chargers to be used to power internet when conventional electricity isn’t available.
Subscription costs of $50-$160, including a minimum of $350 for hardware, make Starlink and other satellite operators a much less affordable, but more sophisticated way of staying fully connected in the event of a storm.
Dejero, the company Taylor is currently working for, also utilizes satellite technology, as well as ground-based cellular systems, along with wired-in connections to create the most robust and consistent form of high-speed internet in any location. By using the concept of cellular bonding, or cellular grouping, receivers use multiple incoming signals from satellites and ground-based cellular providers to make connecting to internet possible from virtually anywhere at any time.
Taylor uses an analogy comparing connectivity to water in a bucket:
"If you have a Home Depot bucket and I put in two 8-ounce glasses of water in that bucket. Then, I punch a hole in the bottom and I tell you to run 100 yards. By the time you get there, you're going to have no water in that bucket. What cellular bonding or grouping does is we fill that bucket with more water. So in the same circumstance, if there's more connectivity in that bucket (water) and you run across that area, you're still going to have some left. So there's going to be diminished (connectivity), but you're still going to have some instead of none."
Cellular bonding equipment can cost more than $1,000, and is often only used for emergency services due to its sophistication. It is a viable solution for business owners looking to keep their current internet plans but strengthen their connection. Since many satellite plans put data limits on priority use for businesses, cellular bonding is a strong wireless alternative.
Taylor recalls his experience at the sheriff’s office and gives some basic technological preparation tips you can do at home now, "Do you have a portable radio? Do you have batteries? Do you have radio stations that you know that send out emergency alerts? Are you tuned to those? And then think about the more sophisticated needs long term."
When the skies turn ugly – hurricanes, tropical storms or just a heavy dose of rain – turn to the weather information brought to you by WGCU and the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network at https://wgcu.org/weather/.