Hurricane prep for your Miami business IT (full checklist)

Hurricane season is June 1 to November 30. Most Miami businesses think about IT prep when the cone is 72 hours out — too late. Here's the checklist we run for our managed clients every June, weeks 2-4. Steal it.

Pre-season (June 1-15)

1. Verify backups are running AND restorable. Restore a sample file. Restore a sample server image. If you've never tested, you don't have a backup — you have hope.
2. Confirm off-site / cloud backup includes EVERYTHING. Email, file shares, ERP database, QuickBooks, CRM. List every system, check each.
3. Document your network — IP ranges, server inventory, VPN config, ISP account numbers. Print it. Put it in a waterproof bag.
4. Update OS + firmware on servers, switches, firewalls. You don't want to patch during a power flicker.
5. UPS battery test — every UPS in the office, every server room. Most UPS batteries die after 3-5 years and the owner only finds out during the outage.

72-hour cone (storm forming)

1. Communicate with staff via 2 channels — email AND text/WhatsApp. Phones may not work during; text usually does.
2. Confirm remote-work tools. VPN tested from home, M365 / Workspace accessible, support phone forwarded to cell.
3. Snapshot your VMs if you have on-prem. If anything goes wrong post-storm, rolling back is fast.
4. Charge everything. Phones, laptops, UPS batteries, portable hotspots, jump-starter packs.
5. Move portable hardware away from windows. A flying tile through a window ruins a workstation.

24 hours before landfall

1. Final backup before any shutdown.
2. Plastic-wrap servers and switches — even in a windowless server room, ceiling leaks happen.
3. Power down non-essential equipment cleanly. Workstations, printers, IoT — shut down properly, unplug, pull from windows.
4. Servers stay on UPS — most modern UPSes will shut servers down gracefully when battery runs low.
5. Activate offsite-only operations — for restaurants, switch POS to cloud-only mode. For offices, all work from home until "all clear."

Post-storm (power restored)

1. Inspect before powering on. Water + electronics = damage. Look for any moisture, rust, or visible damage on equipment.
2. Power on in order: ISP modem → core switch → firewall → server → workstations. Each one fully booted before the next.
3. Verify backups didn't get corrupted during the outage. Run a fresh backup before resuming work.
4. Update your insurance company with photos of any damage within 48 hours.
5. Run an after-action review. What worked, what didn't. Update your plan for next storm.

The Miami-specific gotchas

• FPL outage maps lie after major storms — the website itself goes down. Have a battery radio.
• Comcast WILL be down longer than FPL. Plan LTE failover or accept zero internet for 3-5 days.
• Salt spray from coastal flooding destroys electronics days later via corrosion. Anything that got salt-wet gets professional cleaning.
• Generator-powered offices need UPS in series. Generator voltage drift fries electronics that plug directly in.

We do free hurricane-prep audits for Miami businesses every May/June. We check backups, document your network, and write the runbook. Managed IT clients get this included.