Three Things We Learned During the 2024 Hurricane Season

Hurricanes are not limited to the coast -

The 2024 hurricane season taught us that hurricanes and flooding are not limited to the coast. Although these major storms are more likely on the coast, Hurricane Helene showed that immense damage can be done to landlocked cities and states under certain conditions. After its initial hit to Florida’s big bend, Helene stayed strong, hitting Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina’s Appalachian corridor. These small mountain towns were not prepared for the extreme conditions Helene brought, which led to mass destruction and the third-highest hurricane death toll. 

Helene’s impact has reshaped the way inland cities think about extreme weather preparedness. Rebuilding across the seven affected states will likely result in prioritizing infrastructure that can withstand future disasters. 

Infrastructure matters -

Prioritizing robust infrastructure is essential, as it directly impacts the ability to respond to and recover from the storm's damage. Florida, a state accustomed to hurricanes, restored 85% of power for those affected in 12 hours. Contrast this to western North Carolina, which took a minimum of two weeks for most customers to receive power and a month for others in hard-to-reach areas. 

Having prepared infrastructure can look like Florida using the AquaFence or our Control Assembly Maintenance Option (CAMO). CAMO’s easy plug-and-play technology can be removed entirely when an impending hurricane is detected. This allows control panels to be preserved and ready to return to work when conditions allow. 

The quickest way to rebuild -
The first step to rebuilding after a disaster is restoring water and sewage systems, which require functional controls and pumps. That’s where we come in. Just days after Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers enlisted our help to rebuild New Orleans. We repaired south New Orleans and much of St. Bernard Parish using our quick-release control panel. Today, many cities we work with rely on our CAMO system combined with Opti-Float to save time and money when restoring water systems. To learn more about CAMO and Opti-Float integrations for city infrastructure, visit coxresearch.com.