Direct Relief Tackles the Long-Term Costs of Hurricanes with Microgrids for Florida Health Care Centers

Hurricane-related deaths aren’t necessarily caused by the short-term effects of the storms–flooding, for example. They’re the result of disruptions to people’s lives that undermine their access to health care and hurt their finances, creating extreme stress, according to a study published in Nature.

​To address the short- and long-term effects of hurricanes, Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization, is investing $5.25 million to deploy microgrids at nine community health care facilities in Florida serving low-income residents.

​The study published in Nature found that over the long term, hurricanes can cause deaths in numbers 300 times higher than immediate deaths.

​Hurricane-related deaths can occur 20 years after the storms

​The report’s authors studied the impact of the 501 hurricanes that struck the continental U.S. between 1930 and 2015. The average hurricane caused 24 immediate deaths, but storms, on average, led to about 7,170 and 11,430 additional deaths in the 20 years after landfall, they found.

​Low-income Florida residents who seek help at community health care centers are particularly vulnerable to hurricane-related effects.

“​Florida has unique geographic challenges year after year and is hardest hit by hurricanes, on both the Atlantic and Gulf side,” said Sara Rossi, managing director, Health Resiliency Fund at Direct Relief. “It leaves these health centers vulnerable, which is why we have such a robust commitment to Florida.”

On May 5, Rossi will participate in a panel discussion about health care center resilience at the 2026 Microgrid Knowledge conference.

Donations funded the Florida microgrids

​After Hurricane Ian in September 2022 pummeled Florida’s electric grid, donations poured into Direct Relief, and a year later, the organization decided to allocate the $5.25 million for the nine projects in federally qualified community health care centers that serve low-income residents, Rossi said.

​In the state’s hurricane-prone regions, many people are uninsured or economically vulnerable and rely on these safety-net health care providers, she said.

With microgrids, the community centers can serve as resilience hubs where people can charge phones and medical devices, refrigerate their medicine and cool off during heat waves. Resilience hubs are cropping up in many regions, including in low-income communities.

​In Florida, the microgrid systems range from 20 kW to 68 kW of solar, with battery capacity ranging from 82 kWh to 220 kWh, Rossi said. Some have existing natural gas or diesel backup systems incorporated into the microgrid.

Direct Relief’s aim is to provide at least four hours of resilience, but the microgrids are more often providing eight to 12 hours of outage protection.

Direct Relief’s investment in hurricane-prone regions totals $14.7 million