Preparing for Hurricane Helene
Generation180 is sharing stories of how clean energy can help protect families and communities in the face of climate disaster. This story comes from Chandra Brown whose community is still without power eight days after Hurricane Helene, but she is able to power her home and help her neighbors thanks to solar and battery storage. (This blog originally appeared on the blog, Be Influence, by Chandra Brown.)
September 26, 2024, Metter, GA: We thought we were prepared for tropical storm force winds from Hurricane Helene. We tucked away the ferns, laid down the pool umbrellas, put the trashcans in the shed, and made sure our home battery backup was set to full backup so we would have some power if the grid went down.
As I watched the track of Hurricane Helene, I decided to clear out a closet in case we got some tornadoes. I was sure it was overkill. But I’d been needing to clean out and organize that closet anyway.
Around 9 pm the tornado sirens started going off. And we stuck the kids and the dog in the closet.
We didn’t feel or see any tornadic activity and after some time we all headed to bed.
Important note about our house: It’s old! According to the plaque from the historical society it was built in 1910. We have plaster walls and a big porch. The house is very quiet. Everyone else in my family – including the dog – slept through the storm. In 2022, we installed a solar and battery backup system. It was crucial to our family’s comfort over the next 7+ days.
Hurricane Helene Knocks Grid Power Systems Down
9/27/2024: Power went out around 2:45 am at our house. I woke up when our ceiling fans and HVAC turned off. To conserve battery power, I went around the house shutting off “vampire” loads. These are items that drain electricity even when they are “off.”
My husband woke me up around 5:30 am on 9/27. All the street lights were out. We had our battery backup power so we flicked on the back floodlights. We took a look outside in the back yard and saw all of our big oaks and a diseased maple were still standing. Plus we had a bonus owl sighting in one of our oaks. No damage to the house.
The wind and rain were still moving through a bit, so we headed back inside to check our phones and wait for sunrise. And then the sun came up… And we realized how lucky we were. A quick look out the front door showed extensive damage to some of our neighbors’ property. And the electrical system.
I ran inside and fired up an electric tea kettle and the coffee grinder to make fresh pots of french press coffee for the block.
Then we took a look around our neighborhood and downtown Metter and realized how truly lucky we were. Trees were down EVERYWHERE. Metter is a “Tree City USA” and had a beautiful tree canopy. Many power poles were snapped in half. Transformers and power lines were laying on the ground.
The National Weather Service provided a run down of top wind gusts and rainfall totals. Peak windspeed in Metter was 53 mph.
Hurricane Helene Takes Most Communications Systems Down
We returned home a little stunned by what we saw. And quickly realized that landlines and cell towers were not working. We had been able to communicate with our family in the pre-dawn hours because of our battery backup and our buried fiber optic high speed internet (thanks Pineland Telephone Company!).
We provided WIFI access to our neighbors so they could communicate with their loved ones.
And we came back and cleaned up our relatively small mess in the yard. Over the next few days we were able to clean up our yard with our battery powered blower and mower — all charged up with our excess solar production during the sunny days that followed the storm.
I’ll add another post with more details on our solar and battery storage/back up system and how it’s functioned on 7+ days without grid power. For now, you can read more about our installation from the Metter Advertiser.
Hurricane Helene in Metter: Water systems working
A few days after Hurricane Helene passed through our area, I started seeing posts from people in surrounding communities without water. It had never occurred to me that our drinking water system would be so impacted by massive power outages. I had stored a little water, but not enough to keep my family safely hydrated for days.
Thankfully, the City of Metter installed backup generators on water and sewer systems. We never lost water pressure and were able to take (cold) showers, flush toilets and drink safe water throughout the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Many, many people in neighboring communities were not as lucky. Drinking water distributions began pretty quickly after the storm.
Powering the Future: Preparing for the Next Storm
Our family was incredibly lucky and grateful that all of the major systems worked at our house: power, water, sewer, communications. Our solar and battery backup were the hub that kept us up and running. It’s not perfect, but we sure are grateful we had it in place.
And we were lucky. If a tree had fallen on a panel system or if the wind had shaken wiring loose, or any number of other catastrophes, we would not have been as comfortable.
I’m going to use a few future blog posts to dig in a bit on HOW these systems worked for us, what the costs are of installing and maintaining them, and what the risks are to our communities into the future.
