Blog•June 22, 2026
Prep your small business or home office for extreme weather
Hurricanes and other severe weather can disrupt operations for days to weeks. Learn how to prepare, stay connected, and recover after the storm.
By Jim Dacey, Kinetic SVP Operations Center
Hurricane season is here, and while NOAA is predicting a below-normal year, forecasters are still expecting up to 14 named storms, with 1-2 becoming major hurricanes.
If you live anywhere near the Gulf or East coasts, you’re already familiar with the uncertainty and potential devastation of hurricane season. But for small business owners or folks working from a home office, a storm doesn’t have to be catastrophic to have a huge impact.
Just losing internet service for a few days can grind operations to a halt or disrupt income at an already vulnerable moment. Fiber can help you stay connected and keep your business running, even when the weather gets wild.
Start with the right connectivity foundation
When a storm rolls in, legacy internet connections can get spotty fast. But fiber is built to hold up better in extreme weather. Instead of copper, it uses glass strands to transfer data, so it isn’t as vulnerable to lightning or moisture.
If you’re still on DSL or cable, now is a great time to consider switching. When a major storm hits, fiber internet can be the difference between “business as usual” and scrambling to get back online. Right now, many Kinetic customers are eligible for a completely free upgrade to fiber from their existing DSL connection.
Take data backup best practices seriously
For a lot of busy SMB owners, a strong data back-up and recovery plan feels like a nice-to-have — right up until they’re facing the complete loss of years of records. The 3-2-1 storage strategy is one of the strongest approaches you can take:
- Maintain the original, active working file
- Keep a local backup copy on-site
- Store another copy off-site for disaster recovery
For off-site storage, the cloud is the gold standard for many. It keeps your files safe and accessible, even if your local systems go down.
Make sure you regularly, automatically back-up things like customer records, invoices, supplier info, and any other data that would be detrimental to lose. When in doubt, better too much than too little. If the worst happens, no one regrets backing up too much data.
Have a game plan, not just a "hope plan"
We can’t control the weather, but we can control how we prepare for it. For small business owners, that might mean:
- Letting your team know how to check in if your usual communication channels are down
- Prepping flexible schedule in case you need to shut down early or re-open later
- Making sure you have a reliable way to connect, whether that's mobile hotspots, battery backups, or both
- Keeping an eye on provider communications to get an idea of when services may be restored
If you work from home, it’s the same thing. Have your emergency contacts saved, know where your backup power sources are, and make sure your devices are charged well before the storm hits.
Make sure your internet provider has your back
At Kinetic, we’ve been through more than a few storm seasons ourselves, so we know how important it is to stay connected when the weather gets chaotic. That’s why we’re continuing to expand our fiber footprint to help small businesses and home offices stay online when it matters most.
“Our commitment to our customers is real. We were there in the community before the storm, we’ll be there after the storm, because we live there too,” said Barry Bishop, Kinetic’s SVP of field ops. “If storms do impact our service in your community, you should know that Kinetic will be right there, working right alongside your first responders and local authorities to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. I can’t guarantee storms won’t damage service in the area, but I will guarantee that our technicians will be right there beside you working to rebuild.”
Our modern business solutions also offer features like automatic failover — a secondary connection that automatically takes over if your primary internet service goes down, giving you peace of mind and continuity when storms hit.
Prep now so you're not scrambling later
Hurricane season is unpredictable, but your internet and communication plan doesn’t have to be. A few simple steps now can make a huge difference when a storm is in the forecast.
Whether you’re running a boutique downtown, managing a remote team, or handling the books from your kitchen table, stay connected and internet better with Kinetic.