Storm Season and Your Golf Cart: Before, During, and After a Hurricane in Southeast Volusia County

September 21, 2026

Three hurricanes in three years have put real water and real wind into this stretch of the Florida coast, and each one left a trail of golf cart calls that fifteen minutes of preparation could have avoided. The short version: charge the cart to full, unplug the charger from the wall before the power goes out, move a barrier-island or canal-side cart to higher ground, and after the storm do not charge a pack that sat in saltwater until it has been inspected. The long version explains why each step matters, using what actually happened here.

What the last three storms did

Hurricane Ian, September 2022. Ian made landfall in southwest Florida, but its remnants dumped extraordinary rain on the east coast days later. Ponce Inlet, at the north end of New Smyrna Beach, recorded 31.52 inches of rain. The National Hurricane Center’s own storm report put the highest total it tracked at 26.95 inches in Grove City near the landfall point, with a secondary rainfall peak of 21.49 inches at Daytona Beach as the remnants reached the Atlantic side; either way, this stretch of coast took some of the heaviest rain the storm produced anywhere, and it fell within a few miles of downtown New Smyrna Beach.

Hurricane Nicole, November 2022. Six weeks after Ian, Nicole’s surge and wind arrived on ground the earlier storm had already weakened. Nearly 50 coastal condominiums, single-family homes, and hotels across Volusia County collapsed or were placed in danger of collapse from the combined erosion of the two storms, with an initial damage estimate for Volusia and Flagler counties together above $500 million. A widely circulated photo from that aftermath shows the remains of dunes and a house “just south of New Smyrna Beach.” In response, Volusia County allowed certain homeowners to keep building seawalls past May 1, 2023, the date sea turtle nesting season otherwise restricts that kind of construction.

Hurricane Milton, October 2024. Milton crossed the state and brought sustained winds of 60 mph and gusts to 87 mph to Daytona Beach, with a 99 mph gust recorded at Ponce Inlet. It killed four people in Volusia County, caused $267 million in county-wide damage, dropped more than 12 inches of rain in parts of the county, and arrived as part of a statewide tornado outbreak that produced at least 46 confirmed tornadoes, with the Daytona Beach area within the region affected.

All three storms produced the same two kinds of golf cart damage. On the barrier island and along the lagoon, saltwater in battery compartments and drive systems. Everywhere, chargers that were plugged in when the power came back and took the surge, and packs that sat dead through a multi-day outage.

Where the risk is

The risk is not evenly spread, and it pays to be honest about that.

Bethune Beach is the most exposed community on our route: a barrier-island community with the Atlantic on one side and the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon on the other, reachable only by A1A. Surge and erosion here are a direct threat to anything left low.

New Smyrna Beach’s beachside neighborhoods, on the same barrier island, share that exposure, along with canal and riverfront properties in Edgewater and Oak Hill.

Venetian Bay, on the mainland side near US 1, and inland communities like Samsula and Osteen, are not exposed to storm surge the same way. Wind, rain, and the power outage are the threat there, and the power outage is what kills chargers.

Before the storm

Charge to full. A fully charged pack is the cart’s own reserve through an outage, and on a flooded pack a full charge is the best state to sit in. Do this as soon as a storm is in the forecast, not the night before, because the outage may come early.
Top the water. A full pack that sits for a week in a hot, closed garage or cart barn is fine; a dry one is not.
Unplug the charger from the wall. This is the step inland owners skip. When utility power returns after an outage it often comes back with a surge, and a charger plugged in through that surge is one of the most common storm-season failures we see. A dead charger is $300 to $800; unplugging is free. The charger repair page has the rest.
On the barrier island or a canal, move the cart. Up the driveway, into a neighbor’s garage on higher ground, onto a trailer if you have one. A cart that takes a foot of saltwater is a pack, cables, a solenoid, a controller, and brake hardware all at once.
Set the parking brake and chock it. Wind moves light vehicles.
If the cart is how you get around your community during recovery, know its range. A cart with a tired pack is not reliable transportation after a storm. If range has been shrinking, read the range dropping page before you need it.

During the outage

Leave the cart alone. Do not plug the charger in the moment the lights flicker on; wait until power has been stable for a while. If you must drive the cart during the outage, short trips, and remember there is no way to recharge until power is back. Storm-flooded streets hide debris and washouts, and a golf cart’s brakes and steering were built for a golf course.

After the storm

If the cart stayed dry: plug the charger back in once power is stable and watch it start normally. If it does nothing, does not click off, or the pack starts to smell of sulfur, unplug it and read the rotten egg smell page; a surge-damaged charger can lose its shutoff and overcharge.

If saltwater reached the cart: do not charge it. Saltwater in a battery compartment shorts across terminals, gets into the cells if the caps were off, and corrodes every connection it touches. Charging a pack in that state is a fire risk. Rinse the compartment and the underside with fresh water as soon as you safely can, let it dry, and have the pack, cables, solenoid, controller, and brakes inspected before power goes to any of it. Sometimes the pack survives and the cart needs cables and a terminal service. Sometimes the honest number is a new pack and a controller. You will get the readings either way.

If the cart sat dead through a long outage: a pack that went into the storm full and simply self-discharged usually comes back. A pack that went in at half charge and sat a week in a hot garage may have sulfated. The sat all summer page covers the recovery attempt and the load test that decides it.

The two-minute version, on the fridge

Charge full. Unplug the charger. On the barrier island or a canal, move it. After: dry cart, plug in once power is stable; wet cart, do not charge, rinse, call. Every price on this site is on the pricing page, and ahead of forecast weather we prioritize charger and battery calls, because a charged cart matters most when the power is out.