Generator Dealer in Tampa Bay, Florida

While it’s been more than 100 years since a major hurricane made landfall in Tampa-St. Petersburg — a Category 4 hurricane that split an existing barrier island in half — if you live here, you know it doesn’t take a direct hit to see widespread damage, flooding, and power outages. Every year the Tampa Bay area is affected by hurricanes and tropical storms that make landfall either south or north of us or pass by on the way north toward Florida’s Panhandle.

You don’t have to think too far back to remember when Hurricane Eta brushed the Tampa Bay area in September 2020, creating a dangerous storm surge, flooding downtown Tampa and all of St. Petersburg, and knocking out power for 28,000 people. Or the following summer, when Elsa passed by on the way to Cedar Key in July 2021, dumping lots of rain and leaving 20,000 without power and wishing they had a whole-house generator.

But nobody will forget September 2017, when Hurricane Irma triggered one of the nation’s largest natural disaster-related power outages ever measured, knocking out power for 12 million Floridians for up to two weeks, including nearly 1 million in the greater Tampa – St. Pete area. Irma brought tornadoes east of Tampa and winds that battered the entire area, causing considerable damage to property and the electrical grid.

The Tampa Bay area has two official tornado seasons – one that overlaps with hurricane season and a more robust spring tornado season from January through March. But in actuality, tornadoes can happen almost anytime, and Tampa sees an average of 5 tornadoes per year. On December 16, 2020, for example, a powerful F-2 tornado spent two hours cutting its way across Pinellas County, churning across Tampa Bay, and passing over the 8-lane Howard Franklin Bridge during rush hour before it weakened, only to reform east of Tampa. More than 18,000 lost power. While severe storms cause most of our major power outages, almost every day, somewhere in the Tampa Bay area, collisions, wildlife misadventure (think squirrels, snakes, and short circuits), or equipment failures alsodisrupt residential electric service. Once located, these can usually be resolved in 3-5 hours.  But not always. We’ve all experienced seemingly random power outages that can last all or part of a day.  And, even a short outage can stop you and your family in your tracks when you aren’t prepared.

If you live anywhere in the Tampa Bay area, you know that anytime power goes out unexpectedly – whether it’s a power grid problem or a storm — it doesn’t take too long for things to get complicated and stressful. Food, supplies, and peace of mind start running low – particularly when outages are widespread. Most of our major power outages happen during summer’s heat, making it more difficult, especially for family members with medical conditions.

If you don’t have an automatic backup generator for your home, your options are limited when the power goes out for any length of time.

You can wait for it to come back on. That means no cooking, no lights, no refrigeration, no HVAC — especially brutal during hot, humid summers. There’s no TV, no phone chargers, no power for medical devices, and often no water. When the power outage is widespread, hunting down an available hotel room – or a kind-hearted friend with power that can take you in — can use up your dwindling phone charge, and that can be a gamble if the roads en route to your destination are blocked by flooding, fallen trees, downed power lines, or traffic accidents.

While you can’t control the weather, you CAN avoid a replay of the inconvenience, worry, and insecurity that comes every time there’s a severe weather alert or equipment failure that could mean losing electrical power.

Before the next season brings new power outage challenges,  you can explore an altogether better option—the peace of mind that comes with uninterrupted power from an automatic, whole-home Generac backup generator from Canter Power Systems. Generac is the top-selling brand of standby generators and we are the premier Generac dealer in Tampa.