Your Hurricane Checklist for Staying Connected
It’s hurricane season in South Carolina and storms of hurricane magnitude have historically delivered some big blows to coastal Carolina. Storm preparation lasts for several days as the hurricane approaches, lasts for many nerve-wracking hours as it comes ashore or skirts the coast, and sometimes lingers for several weeks or months in the aftermath.
It is imperative that residents and visitors alike stay alert and have connectivity with loved ones while accessing news and weather reports. To do this, however, you must be familiar with the threats that arise from a hurricane and know how to prepare for a storm that may leave in its wake varying degrees of danger, destruction and devastation.
Know the threats a hurricane presents that may affect your ability to connect via internet:
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Power outages and surges are the most common cause of lost connectivity. Without electricity, your modem and router go offline. Lightning strikes can fry your networking equipment and down power lines can cause dangerous power surges.
Depending on your location, customers can report electrical outages at these area locations: Dominion Energy, Berkeley Electric Cooperative, or Santee Cooper. - Home Telecom’s Fiber-optic infrastructure is extremely resilient. The glass strands inside buried fiber-optic cables are exempt from water and electrical disturbance, but residents and businesses operating on traditional copper or satellite connections are often above ground, leaving them vulnerable to high winds and flying debris that threaten the entire network.
- Flooding and soil erosion caused by storm surges and flooding can still damage buried cables and flood underground network vaults.
- Power grid failure takes power outages and surges to a more serious level. Even if fiber lines remain intact, severe grid failures often knock out local power hubs.
- Heavy downpours can severely degrade signal quality and network congestion will often overwhelm local broadband networks and cellular towers, making calls and data transfers unreliable.
The best way to protect your home or business connectivity from major storm damage is to prepare a hurricane checklist:
- Download any home automation apps that manage your physical security. Find information about smart home security/automation including remotely closing shutters, setting timers and other automations on Home Telecom’s HomeSmart page.
- Download your favorite weather tracking apps that show live storm paths with push alerts. The Tropical Hurricane Tracker and Windy.com have dedicated hurricane trackers; and the FEMA App provides real-time severe weather alerts, safety tips, and the location of open emergency shelters if evacuation becomes necessary.
- Plug your modem and router into high-quality surge protectors or Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
- Secure a UPS battery backup or purchase or rent a portable generator.
- Be familiar with activating cellular hotspots or flag public hotspots on your mobile device.
- Elevate equipment off the floor to protect them from rising floodwaters.
- Save critical documents, maps, and important information on your phone or in the Cloud so they are accessible offline.
- Optimize your device settings to minimize data usage
- Use the Ready.gov severe weather preparation page to access disaster readiness tips.
Be prepared to run internet outage troubleshooting activities to confirm any outages in your area and ensure the outage problem is, or is not, your hardware or your device:
- Home Telecom has a designated page for tracking any outages due to maintenance issues or disruptions in service. Customers can sign up for real-time texts and email alerts to keep you in the loop when unexpected outages occur.
- Ensure your account is paid in full and current.
- Reboot your internet modem. Over 80% of home network issues are resolved by a basic reboot.
- Check your cables and status lights. Make sure you do not have any loose or damaged cables.
Home Telecom has you covered during Hurricane season in South Carolina with a local support team ready to help answer any questions or to help you get your internet services back up and running as quickly as possible during serious weather events!