If you’ve lived in Tallahassee through even one hurricane season, you already know how the story goes. A storm forms in the Gulf, the cone of uncertainty drifts our way, and suddenly every hardware store in town is sold out of batteries, every electrician’s phone is ringing off the hook, and the line for generator service is two weeks long.

The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1. That gives you roughly 30 days to get ahead of the crowd — and ahead of the weather. At GT Electric, we’ve spent decades helping North Florida homeowners and businesses prepare for, ride out, and recover from hurricanes. The single biggest lesson we’ve learned is this: the homes that come through a storm best are the ones that got their electrical work done in May, not in June.

Here’s the pre-season electrical checklist we walk every customer through.

1. Service your standby generator now (not the day before the storm)

If you already own a whole-home or standby generator, this is the most important item on your list. A generator that hasn’t run in six months may not start when you need it most. Every spring, we see the same failure modes: stale fuel, weak batteries, clogged air filters, and oil that should have been changed two seasons ago.

A proper pre-season generator service includes:

• Full oil and filter change
• Battery load test and replacement if needed
• Fuel system inspection (and fresh fuel for gas units)
• Transfer switch test under load
• Inspection of the enclosure, exhaust, and intake for nests, debris, or corrosion

If you booked generator service last June, you waited too long. Book it now while the schedule is open.

2. Don’t have a generator? Start the conversation today.

Permits, equipment lead times, gas line work, and the actual install — for a whole-home standby system, that whole sequence usually runs four to eight weeks. If you call us in late May, hoping to be protected by mid-June, the calendar is going to fight you.

If you’ve been on the fence about a backup power solution, May is the right time to:

• Get a free home assessment to size the right unit for your home
• Compare standby vs. portable options (we cover both)
• Lock in install dates before the rush
• Coordinate with your gas utility if you’re going with natural gas or propane

3. Install whole-home surge protection

This is the upgrade most Tallahassee homeowners overlook — and the one that pays for itself the first time lightning strikes within a half-mile of your house. A direct lightning hit isn’t even necessary. A nearby strike can send a surge through the grid that fries everything on the other side of your panel: HVAC boards, refrigerator compressors, smart TVs, garage door openers, well pumps, security systems.

A whole-home surge protector mounts at your main panel and clamps voltage spikes before they reach your circuits. Combined with point-of-use surge strips on sensitive electronics, it’s the closest thing to insurance you can install on a Tuesday afternoon.

4. Have your electrical panel inspected

If your home is more than 25 years old — or if you’ve recently added an EV charger, hot tub, additional HVAC, or a whole-home generator — your panel may be working harder than it was ever designed to. A pre-season inspection catches:

• Overloaded or double-tapped breakers
• Aluminum wiring or undersized feeders
• Corroded bus bars (a real problem in our humid climate)
• Recalled panels still in service (FPE, Zinsco, Challenger)
• Loose neutrals that show up as flickering lights

A panel that’s marginal in May becomes a panel that fails in August.

5. Walk the exterior and look up

Before the wind picks up, walk your property and look at every wire that comes onto it. You’re looking for:

• Tree limbs touching or near the service drop from the pole to your house
• Branches over the meter base or weatherhead
• Corrosion or rust at the meter
• Exposed wiring on outdoor outlets, pool equipment, or HVAC disconnects
• Damaged outdoor lighting fixtures with exposed contacts

Trim what you can safely reach. Call us — or your utility — for anything near a live service drop.

6. Test your GFCI and AFCI outlets

Every GFCI outlet in your home (kitchen, bath, garage, exterior, pool) has a test and reset button for a reason. Press test on each one. The button should pop and kill power to the outlet. Press reset to restore. If it doesn’t trip, it’s not protecting you. AFCI breakers in your panel work the same way and protect against arc faults — a leading cause of electrical fires.

These devices are inexpensive to replace. They’re priceless when wet weather rolls in.

7. Build your “power-out kit” — and stage it where you’ll find it in the dark

Less electrical, more practical. Have flashlights with fresh batteries in known locations. Charge battery packs and power stations now. If you have a portable generator, run it for 15 minutes under load this month so you know it works, you remember how to start it, and you remember which extension cords go where. Storms always seem to hit at 2 a.m.

8. Document your electrical setup

Take photos of your panel (with the door open and labels visible), your generator nameplate and last service tag, your meter base, your outdoor disconnects, and any specialty equipment. Email them to yourself. After a storm, this documentation makes insurance claims and emergency repair calls dramatically faster.

Don’t wait for the cone

Every hurricane season, we tell our customers the same thing: the cheapest, fastest, and least stressful electrical work happens before the first named storm forms. Once a system enters the Gulf, prices rise, parts get scarce, and electricians get booked solid.

You have 30 days. Use them.

Schedule your pre-season electrical inspection or generator service with GT Electric today. Call us at (850) 421-9002 or request a quote online — and let’s make sure your home is ready before June 1.