Hurricane Season for a Parked RV in Pasco County: What to Do Before, and What to Check After

September 21, 2026

Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, with the peak around September 10 and most of the activity between mid-August and mid-October. For the parks around Zephyrhills that is the exact window when most rigs are sitting on their lots without their owners, and it is why a storm plan for a parked RV has to be made in April, not in the cone.

Hurricane Milton is the recent reminder. It came ashore near Siesta Key on the evening of October 9, 2024, as a Category 3 with 115 mph winds, spawned at least 46 confirmed tornadoes across Florida, and put more than 3 million customers in the dark, about 500,000 of them in Hillsborough County alone. It pushed the Hillsborough River at Zephyrhills nearly two feet over its previous record and the Anclote River in Pasco to a 26.57-foot crest. A rig on a lot in east Pasco that October got wind, tornado-spawning bands, days without power, and in the low spots, water.

This is what to do before, what a mobile tech can honestly do around a storm, and the order to check things afterward.

Before the storm: the prep list

Do this when the forecast still has days in it. Nothing on this list is safe to do in a rising wind.

Awnings in and locked. The awning is the first thing a storm takes, and when it goes it takes the arms, the sidewall around the mounts, and sometimes the roof edge with it. Retract, lock, and strap if your model allows.

Slides in where the rig allows it. A retracted slide is a smaller sail, its topper is not out catching wind and pooling water, and its seals are compressed. If the rig is set up for the season and a slide cannot come in, at least clear the topper and make sure the seals are sound.

Antennas and dishes down. Crank-up antennas cranked down, satellite dishes stowed, anything on the roof that can catch wind removed.

Vent covers on, vents closed. Then walk the roof, or have it walked, and photograph every joint. Those photos are your baseline for the insurance claim if the sealant lifts.

Loose items off the site. Chairs, mats, grills, ladders, planters, the screen room. Anything that can move will move, and it will move into your sidewall or your neighbor’s.

Shore power disconnected at the pedestal. This is the one people skip. This corridor between Tampa and Orlando carries more lightning than anywhere else in the country, storms bring it in bands, and grid restoration after an outage sends its own surges. A rig unplugged cannot lose its converter, AC board, and fridge board to a surge. If the rig must stay powered, a hardwired surge protector is the minimum.

Propane off at the tank. A rig that shifts, or that takes a debris strike near the gas lines, should not have live propane in it.

Batteries charged, then left alone. Charge the bank fully beforehand so the rig has 12V for lights and the water pump if you end up in it afterward, then disconnect shore power and let it sit dark.

Fresh tank full, gray and black empty. Water weight low in the rig helps a little with stability, and a full fresh tank is drinking water if the park’s supply is off for days. Empty waste tanks are one less thing to deal with when the dump station has no power.

Tires at full pressure, chocks set, leveling jacks down if you have them. More contact with the ground is better.

And if you are in the rig: leave. A recreational vehicle is not a hurricane shelter under any circumstance. Pasco County publishes shelter and evacuation information every season; a rig is on the list of places not to be.

What a mobile tech can and cannot do

Before the storm, with days of warning: a prep visit. We can walk and photograph the roof, reseal a joint that will not survive wind-driven rain, service a stuck awning so it will retract, get a slide that will not move in, and check that the batteries will hold for a dark week. That is a trip fee and an hour or two, and the earlier in the forecast it is booked, the more likely there is a slot.

During the storm: nothing. Nobody works outside in a tropical storm and nobody should. We are inside a building like everyone else, and the phone will be answered when it is safe to answer it.

After the storm, as soon as roads are open: the inspection, and then the repairs in priority order. Active water intrusion first, because it gets worse by the hour in this humidity. Occupied rigs with no cooling next. Then everything else. Expect the schedule to be full; every park in east Pasco is calling the same week.

After the storm: the inspection order

Look before you touch, and do not plug anything in until you have looked.

1. The roof. From the ground with binoculars if the roof is not safe to walk, or wait for a tech with a camera. Lifted sealant, a rolled membrane edge, a missing vent cover, a debris strike. Compare to the photos you took before.

2. Awning arms and fabric. Bent arms, torn fabric, and the sidewall around the mounts. An awning that partly deployed in the wind has usually stressed the mounts even if it looks intact.

3. Slide toppers and seals. Torn topper fabric, a bent topper roller, water sitting in the topper, and the top edge of the slide opening inside for staining.

4. Sidewalls. Debris strikes, cracked gelcoat, and anything that looks like a bubble that was not there before. Impact damage to a laminated wall is how delamination starts, and the humid weeks after a storm are when water gets behind the skin.

5. Inside, for water. Ceiling fixtures, vent frames, window frames, the tops of slide openings, the floor along the walls. Press with a thumb; anything soft is wet decking and the clock is running.

6. Electrical, last. If the rig was plugged in during the storm, or the park lost and regained power, assume a surge until proven otherwise. Do not just plug in and see. Have the converter output, the AC control board, and the fridge board tested before they are asked to work. The batteries and converter page covers what a dead converter looks like.

7. The generator. If you are going to live on it for a few days, run it under load with a carbon monoxide alarm that you have just tested, and check the exhaust for damage before the first start. A bent or leaking exhaust under a motorhome after a storm is a real risk.

Documentation for the claim

Insurance work after a storm comes down to photographs and a written scope. We photograph every point of damage, note what was found on the roof and inside, and write a scope with the published price ranges for each repair that you can hand your adjuster as is. Take your own photos before anyone touches anything, including the loose items that moved and where they ended up. The before-storm roof photos from the prep list are the other half of that file.

The honest summary

A parked rig in Pasco County will go through a hurricane season every year without you, and most years nothing comes close. The prep list above is cheap and takes an afternoon. The part that matters most is the shore power: disconnect it, or protect it, because surge damage is the quiet storm loss that shows up in November with no wind story attached. The rest is awnings in, slides in, roof photographed, loose items gone, and someone local who can check on the rig and call us for the inspection when the roads open. The summer storage post covers the rest of what six months without you does to a rig, and the arrival checklist covers November.