Hurricane Season Preparedness: Seven Critical Steps for Emergency Fuel Management

As we enter the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, predictions point to a relatively normal year with 15 named storms, seven to eight hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. While these numbers align with typical seasonal patterns, the reality remains unchanged: it only takes one storm hitting the right place at the right time to create a catastrophic event. For organizations in healthcare and telecommunications that rely on emergency backup fuel systems, the time for preparation is now, during the calm before the storm.

The 2025 hurricane season officially runs from June first through the end of November, with the early summer months typically remaining quiet. However, as Hurricane Beryl demonstrated in 2024 by becoming the first major hurricane in recent memory to form so early in the season, assumptions about timing can be dangerous. Organizations in hurricane-prone regions, particularly those in Florida and along the Atlantic coast, must take advantage of this preparation window before it closes.

Understanding the Stakes

Emergency backup fuel systems serve as lifelines during extended power outages, supporting everything from hospital ventilators and vaccine refrigeration to telecommunications networks that keep communities connected during disasters. The difference between a well-prepared facility and one caught off-guard can literally be a matter of life and death. As Erik Bjornstad, host of the Fuel Pulse Show Podcast, emphasizes: "You have got time to prepare, but the time to prepare is right now, you do not want to let that get away from you as much as the temptation might be for that to happen."

The following seven recommendations provide a comprehensive framework for hurricane season preparation, with specific considerations for healthcare and telecommunications sectors.

Recommendation One: Establish Rigorous Fuel Quality Testing

Emergency backup fuel quality must be reliable without exception. This means implementing a systematic testing protocol for water contamination, microbial growth, and fuel degradation every three to six months. Organizations that last tested their fuel in 2024 should conduct new tests immediately before hurricane season intensifies.

Healthcare facilities face additional requirements under NFPA 110 standards, which establish specific limits on water content and other fuel quality parameters. These standards serve as guiding requirements that healthcare organizations must follow to maintain compliance and ensure system reliability.

Telecommunications facilities encounter unique challenges due to their reliance on smaller storage tanks at critical sites like cell towers and switch centers. These smaller tanks prove more vulnerable to condensation and microbial growth, necessitating more frequent testing than the standard three to six-month interval.

Recommendation Two: Conduct Comprehensive Generator Load Testing

Moving beyond simple startup checks, organizations must conduct full generator load tests under real operational conditions. This comprehensive testing reveals potential issues that superficial checks cannot detect.

Healthcare facilities already operate under established requirements from CMS and the Joint Commission, mandating at least 30 minutes of testing at 30% load every month, plus an annual four-hour load test. Organizations in this sector likely already comply with these requirements, but documentation remains critical for regulatory compliance.

Telecommunications facilities must simulate complete site failure scenarios, including battery backup depletion, to confirm seamless switchover from UPS systems to generators without service interruption. Most telecom facilities maintain three layers of power redundancy: primary grid power, battery backup, and diesel generators. The true test of system resilience comes not from starting the generator, but from confirming automatic switchover when both grid power and battery systems fail.

As Bjornstad explains: "This kind of thing or these kinds of things like whether your entire power redundancy chain works as opposed to just the generator, that can really only be confirmed under this kind of full load test scenario, and this is the time for you to make it happen. This is the calm before the upcoming storms."

The testing process for telecom facilities involves isolating sites from grid power, forcing battery system drainage, and verifying that diesel generators activate within the required 10 to 30-second window after detecting low battery voltage. This testing confirms the generator can carry full site loads without voltage drops, maintains stable frequency for digital equipment, and operates without fuel system issues like pressure drops or filter clogs.

Recommendation Three: Secure Adequate Fuel Inventory

Organizations cannot operate backup systems without fuel, making inventory planning essential for multi-day outages. The calculation process requires understanding fuel consumption during both average and peak load periods.

Healthcare facilities operate under NFPA 99 requirements for maintaining at least 96 hours of viable fuel supply—equivalent to four full days of operation. This requirement exists precisely because hospitals cannot afford to run out of fuel during emergencies, as dramatically illustrated in the Netflix medical series "Pulse," where a Miami hospital faces fuel shortages during a hurricane. While this fictional scenario creates compelling television, it would be "extraordinarily unlikely to happen in real life" for a major hospital that maintains NFPA 99 compliance.

Telecommunications operations focus on keeping tier one hubs online even if remote towers temporarily lose power. This requires identifying priority sites most essential for maintaining network connectivity, establishing fuel rationing protocols, and pre-arranging resupply routes for critical locations.

Recommendation Four: Harden Infrastructure Against Storm Damage

Protecting essential fuel systems from flooding, wind damage, and debris requires sector-specific approaches tailored to unique vulnerabilities.

Healthcare facilities typically focus on elevating or enclosing day tanks and transfer pumps, as flood waters can breach underground storage systems. These protective measures minimize the risk of fuel contamination or system damage during storm events.

Telecommunications facilities face additional security concerns beyond weather damage. Post-storm chaos creates opportunities for theft and vandalism at remote sites. The scope of this problem became evident in 2024, when over 4,000 theft incidents were reported from telecom sites during just three months (June through August). Thieves target copper cables, batteries, power equipment, and backup generators, often causing additional damage by cutting fiber optic lines during theft attempts.

Installing tamperproof enclosures at remote sites helps prevent fuel theft and equipment damage when post-storm security becomes compromised. Organizations must plan for these security vulnerabilities as seriously as they prepare for weather-related damage.

Recommendation Five: Coordinate Vendor Relationships and Priority Systems

Establishing priority contracts with multiple fuel vendors provides essential redundancy during emergencies when demand exceeds supply. Healthcare facilities should participate in regional emergency preparation coalitions and mutual aid agreements that provide collective purchasing power and coordinated response capabilities.

Telecommunications operators have access to two critical government programs that provide significant advantages during disasters: DIRS (Disaster Information Reporting System) and TSP (Telecommunications Service Priority). These systems offer formal, government-backed priority for network restoration and generator refueling when resources become scarce.

TSP registration assigns priority codes to critical telecom circuits, data links, voice systems, and control centers. After major disasters, service providers are legally required to restore TSP-tagged services before non-prioritized customers, including other businesses. This means registered organizations receive earlier attention for repairs, rerouting, and bandwidth restoration, significantly reducing downtime.

DIRS registration enables real-time reporting of operational needs directly to the FCC and emergency management agencies. When fuel shortages occur at generator sites, DIRS registration ensures organizations appear on priority lists that fuel vendors and emergency services consult when determining refueling support allocation.

The effectiveness of these systems was demonstrated during Hurricane Maria in 2017, when 95% of Puerto Rico's cell towers went offline due to fuel shortages. Major carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, which had pre-registered for DIRS and TSP systems, received prioritized fuel deliveries coordinated through FEMA and local emergency operations. They also gained priority access to restricted disaster zones for infrastructure repair. Meanwhile, smaller carriers without registration fought for limited resources and remained offline for weeks while their registered competitors restored service rapidly.

Organizations not registered for these systems before a storm hits face the prospect of "fighting for the scraps afterwards," while registered operators maintain "a seat at the emergency management table."

Recommendation Six: Train Personnel Through Tabletop Drills

Scenario-based training helps identify gaps in emergency response plans before real disasters strike. Tabletop drills provide cost-effective preparation by walking key team members through emergency scenarios without equipment downtime or operational risks.

Effective tabletop drills begin with specific but realistic scenarios, such as a Category 4 hurricane making landfall within 100 miles, knocking out grid power for five days while delaying emergency fuel deliveries for 72 hours. Participants should include operations managers, facilities teams, generator and fuel system experts, IT and networking personnel, communication staff, and vendor contacts when possible.

The drill process involves walking through emergency response step-by-step across multiple time phases: the first 12 hours after storm impact, day one monitoring protocols, responses to fuel level drops below 50%, days two through five escalation procedures, and recovery phase operations. Healthcare facilities should drill scenarios involving extended operation of ventilators, vaccine refrigeration, and electronic records systems. Telecommunications operations should simulate multiple tower failures requiring network traffic rerouting and load balancing.

Critical to this process is challenging normal assumptions about automatic transfer switches, communication systems, and vendor reliability. Emergency plans built on untested assumptions often fail during real crises. Documentation of drill findings, including identified strengths, previously unknown weaknesses, and specific assignment responsibilities, creates actionable improvement plans.

Bjornstad describes tabletop drills as "a really useful tool that exposes the hidden points, the hidden choke points where a hurricane can take your system offline and then gives you a chance to fix them ahead of time when it still costs nothing but time."

Recommendation Seven: Maintain Comprehensive Documentation

Proper documentation serves dual purposes: regulatory compliance and operational optimization. Healthcare facilities must maintain detailed records to satisfy CMS emergency preparedness requirements, while telecommunications operations need comprehensive data for FCC reporting and system analysis.

Healthcare documentation requirements under CMS include fuel testing and maintenance logs showing water contamination testing, microbial contamination assessment, degradation analysis, and any biocide or stabilizer treatments. Generator testing logs must document monthly 30% load tests, annual four-hour full load tests, and any corrective actions taken. Fuel inventory monitoring requires ongoing tank level records, minimum runtime calculations, and emergency refueling documentation. Vendor agreements, fuel supply contracts, and disaster response network participation must be filed and maintained. After-action reports from tabletop exercises and live drills, along with any resulting emergency plan updates, complete the documentation requirements.

CMS surveys can and will request these documents during inspections, particularly following declared emergencies. Inadequate documentation can result in citations, funding penalties, and potential loss of accreditation.

Telecommunications operations should implement NOC (Network Operations Center) level reporting tools for automated data collection and analysis. Generator run-hour logs with automatic start/stop time recording help predict fuel consumption and schedule maintenance. Automatic alerts should trigger when generators approach maintenance thresholds, such as oil changes required every 250 hours.

Fuel level monitoring through remote sensors provides real-time tank level data to network operations centers, with threshold alerts at predetermined levels (such as 50% capacity) triggering automatic refueling requests to logistics teams. Generator alarms for low oil pressure, cooling temperature issues, or battery faults should automatically create service tickets for immediate response.

Outage and restoration tracking maintains incident logs showing when sites switch to generator power, operational duration, and return to commercial power. This data supports post-storm FCC reporting requirements, particularly for DIRS-registered facilities. Vendor communication logs document emergency fuel requests, delivery confirmations, and supply chain issues during storm events.

These automated systems create data flows that deliver critical information to appropriate personnel and agencies without manual intervention, reducing operational burden while improving compliance and response capabilities.

Taking Action Now

Hurricane season preparation cannot wait for storm formation or landfall warnings. The seven recommendations outlined here provide a comprehensive framework for organizations to assess and improve their emergency fuel system readiness. Success requires systematic implementation: testing fuel quality, conducting comprehensive load testing, securing adequate fuel inventory, hardening infrastructure, coordinating vendor relationships, training personnel, and maintaining thorough documentation.

Organizations that implement these preparations position themselves ahead of the curve, avoiding the headaches and potentially catastrophic consequences of inadequate emergency planning. The investment in preparation time during the calm season pays dividends when storms threaten critical operations and communities depend on reliable backup power systems.

The 2025 hurricane season may follow normal patterns, but normal seasons still produce major storms capable of causing extended power outages and fuel shortages. The difference between organizations that maintain operations and those that fail often comes down to preparation completed before the first storm forms. The time to act is now, while preparation remains a matter of planning rather than survival.