Prepared for Hurricane Season
7/1/2025
This article first appeared as a column in the 2025 July issue of South Florida Hospital News
By Mary Mayhew, FHA President and CEO
Floridians are no strangers to hurricanes. In fact, there have been just 18 hurricane seasons since 1851 that have passed without a storm affecting our state. And no part of the state is unaffected. Every mile of Florida’s coastline has been impacted at some point by at least one hurricane.
While storms are disruptive at best and devastating at worst, the result from each storm is a stronger Florida. A stronger preparedness and response system, better communication, increased resilience, and hardened infrastructure.
As the Atlantic hurricane season officially started June 1, the 2025 season is predicted to be “above average” for hurricane activity. Running through November 30, this season is predicted to have 13 to19 named storms, with 6 to 10 becoming hurricanes and 3 to 5 ranking at Category 3 or above.
Now is the time to prepare. To make sure emergency response plans are current.
Families and businesses alike should have a predefined emergency plan and an at-the-ready emergency supply kit.
Preparedness is the key to weathering any storm safely. And, every hospital in every community in our state lives this motto every single day.
Florida’s hospitals are guided by the singular principle of delivering continuous, safe patient care, no matter the circumstances. While a storm can certainly present challenges and difficulties, hospitals have systems, infrastructure, personnel, policies, procedures, protections, and contingencies and redundancies in place to maintain a safe care environment for patients and staff and to preserve hospitals’ operations to respond to the needs of the community before, during, and after a storm.
For years, hospitals have been hardening their facilities to withstand hurricane-force winds and making critical investments to support physical plant operations in the event of flooding and surges. They stockpile essential medications and supplies. In addition, as community-rooted organizations, Florida’s hospitals develop, practice, and refine extensive emergency preparation plans in coordination with local and regional first responders, governments, telecommunications providers, and each other.
These plans reflect ongoing regulatory changes and new best practices in emergency response as well as lessons learned from the management of previous crises. County emergency management officials review these plans annually for comprehensiveness and accuracy, and hospitals conduct at least two exercises a year to test, drill, and practice their plans to identify any areas of needed improvement and to ensure their teams understand how to operationalize the plan in an actual emergency.
The goal, again, is continuous, safe patient care.
When hurricanes threaten, hospitals activate their emergency response. They mobilize around-the-clock command centers to communicate and coordinate with local officials and inform critical decisions governing patient care and continued operations. Response is flexible and agile, evolving as weather and situational factors change. Response is also hyper-local. A one-size-fits-all plan or response is not a recipe for success. But, state and federal resources and support are nonetheless essential to sustain hospitals in that local response to on-the-ground situations that can vary widely from community to community, even neighborhood to neighborhood.
With patient and staff safety at the forefront of all decision-making, hospitals evaluate whether evacuations ahead of storm landfall are necessary. The purpose of the years of investments in infrastructure hardening and other physical plant improvements is to avoid, when possible, patient evacuations. If they cannot be avoided, however, advance evacuation and patient transfer decisions are made locally and in consultation with state and local officials based on projected storm paths and in accordance with the protocols and procedures outlined in emergency response plans.
This year’s hurricane season is predicted to yet-again be active. While no one can control the weather, everyone can make sure they have an emergency plan ahead of time and follow local and state guidance when storms threaten. Florida’s hospitals will do as they always do: prepare, practice, and respond with the diligence, expertise, and meticulousness that are the hallmark of our state’s world-class healthcare institutions.