On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian slammed Southwest Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, the first Cat 4 storm to impact Southewest Florida since Hurricane Charly in 2004, nearly 20 years ago.
Ian produced winds and flooding rarely seen anywhere on Earth. Hurricane Hunters inside Ian before landfall recorded winds over 150 mph, with a minimum pressure of 936 mb. The pressure difference between the center of the storm and the surrounding atmosphere bringing intense winds, heavy rainfall, and catastrophic storm surges.
Assessing Our Customers Damage
Immediately after the storm, Go Solar Power sent out messages to our customers that were in the path of the storm to see how they made out. Luckily we did not have any customer’s that lost a home. Here are some of the many responses we received.
- “Electricity went out, but in a blink of an eye, my Tesla Batteries kicked in and provided me with electricity to power everything…A/C, refrigerators and lights for the entire time we were without . I’m happy I made the purchase of solar panels and Tesla Batteries.”
- “Happy to report everything was fine, Storm watch mode worked. It was nice to have the peace-of-mind with the batteries.”
- “The Powerwalls worked as expected through the super storm. It’s a very smart and precise system.”
- “The Powerwall did extremely well very very happy with it I might even down the road add another module to it thank you very much glad we bought it.”
- “Power wall works just fine We’re able to test it out overnight Now back on the grid.”
How Can We Help
Our first priority, was to immediately dispatch our crews to the hardest-hit from the storm to assess roof damage and damages to their solar power systems. We did have a handful of customers in the hardest hit areas of Cape Coral and Fort Myers, Florida that lost a few of their solar panels and experienced some loss of battery backup from the flooding.
Solar Powered Customers typically have approximately 20 – 40 Solar Panels on the roof of a home. With our hardest hit customers only losing one or two panels in the storm, their systems on a whole survived the storm as well as protecting the roof underneath.
Team Work Makes the Care Work!
In the days following the storm, our entire team gathered in our very own energy center to help put together care packages for our customers and their communities that were affected by the storm. Care packages included much needed items like Water, Fruit, Baby Wipes, Batteries, Snack Bars and Granola.
As you can see from the smiles on the faces above, the care packages were very welcomed. Go Solar Power also had the opportunity to do some on-the-spot re-commissioning of a customer’s Tesla Powerwall while on site to make sure that customer’s power stayed on through the days if not weeks ahead with power outages throughout the storm area.
Solar Power Passes The Hurricane Test
One thing that is clear. After both Hurricane Fiona, that hit Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and Hurricane Ian, that hit Southwest Florida, is that Solar power passed the test. Solar Panels withstood the Storm — a fact that will aid the technology’s supporters in lobbying battles that are happening around the country as renewable energy seeks to accelerate its growing role in the U.S. electricity supply.
With catastrophic flooding, knocked out power lines and washed away roads and bridges, people who have solar panels and batteries say those systems kept the lights on during the storms, and even allowed them to share electricity with neighbors left in the dark.
