Direct Relief announced today a more than $5.2 million investment in resilient power infrastructure across Florida, helping community health centers remain operational during hurricanes, flooding, extreme heat, and prolonged grid outages.
The projects, part of Direct Relief’s Power for Health initiative, include solar microgrids with battery storage systems designed to support continuity of care during disasters and power disruptions.
Developed in partnership with the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, or FACHC, the initiative includes resilient power systems at nine federally qualified health center sites spanning seven counties across the southern half of Florida. Site selection and overall strategy were informed by a statewide assessment of health center backup power vulnerabilities and operational risks facilitated by FACHC following Hurricane Ian.
Together, the projects will provide reliable backup power capacity to help health centers continue operating during storms and outages, supporting vaccine refrigeration, medication storage, patient care, communications, and medical equipment.
“After every major hurricane, we see the same reality play out: when power goes down, healthcare becomes harder to access at the exact moment communities need it most,” said Sara Rossi, Director of Direct Relief’s Health Resiliency Fund. “Clinics are trying to keep vaccines cold, maintain medications, power critical equipment, and continue caring for patients while entire neighborhoods are dealing with flooding, extreme heat, displacement, and infrastructure failures. These investments are about helping healthcare providers stay operational so communities can recover more safely and more quickly.”
Florida remains one of the nation’s most disaster-prone states, facing recurring threats from hurricanes, flooding, storm surge, and extreme heat. For medically vulnerable populations, prolonged power outages can quickly escalate into public health emergencies.
Community health centers often care for patients managing chronic illnesses, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory conditions, and mobility limitations. Many patients rely on refrigerated medications, electrically powered medical devices, accessible transportation, or nearby clinics for ongoing treatment and support. Management of chronic conditions relies on continuous access to care and medications, with outage-driven healthcare closures often exacerbating existing conditions by disrupting access to vital healthcare services.
During hurricanes and severe weather events, health centers frequently serve as frontline community resources for urgent care, medication access, wound treatment, vaccine storage, care coordination, and recovery support. When power failures force clinics offline, access to care can quickly deteriorate across affected communities.
Flooding and fuel shortages following major storms can also complicate reliance on traditional backup generators, making solar-plus-storage systems an increasingly important tool for maintaining continuity of care when transportation networks and fuel supply chains are disrupted.
“While we are accustomed to preparing for hurricanes in Florida, the past several storm seasons have brought new lessons, and they have informed the steps we are taking now,” said Gianna Van Winkle, Director of Emergency Management Programs at FACHC. “This includes the adoption of resilient power sources and building stronger partnerships through coordination and collaboration at all levels. When responding to disasters, we get through it together and share openly about our strengths and the challenges we faced along the way; this is what advances our capabilities, year after year.”
Direct Relief’s work in Florida reflects nearly two decades of hurricane preparedness and response experience shaped by lessons learned after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when widespread infrastructure failures left healthcare providers without power, refrigeration, communications, or reliable fuel access for extended periods.
Since then, Direct Relief has developed one of the nation’s largest privately funded healthcare preparedness programs, annually pre-positioning emergency medical supply caches across hurricane-prone regions and investing in resilient infrastructure to help healthcare providers remain operational during disasters.
In Florida alone, Direct Relief has supported emergency response and long-term recovery efforts following Hurricanes Ian, Irma, Michael, Nicole, Idalia, Helene, Milton, and other severe weather events through the delivery of medical aid, emergency funding, backup power support, and healthcare resilience investments.
One completed project at Osceola Community Health Services in Kissimmee serves a census tract identified as having very high disaster vulnerability due to hurricanes, inland flooding, and extreme heat. The clinic functions as a primary healthcare provider for much of the surrounding community, where healthcare access alternatives are limited.
Two projects have been completed to date at Treasure Coast Community Health in Fellsmere, Indian River County, and Osceola Community Health Services in Kissimmee, Osceola County. Completed installations represent approximately $885,000 in investment to date. Five additional projects are currently in active installation and commissioning phases, representing nearly $2 million in additional resilience investments statewide.
Approximately $2.3 million of the investment is supporting three projects in Miami-Dade County alone.
The largest individual project in the portfolio is underway at Miami Beach Community Health Center, where Direct Relief is investing more than $1.35 million in resilient power infrastructure. It is currently Direct Relief’s largest single-site Power for Health investment anywhere in the program.
Installation work across the portfolio is being carried out by Florida-based developers PayOli Solar and SALT Energy, as well as Colusa Indian Energy, a Tribally owned and operated solar developer.
Direct Relief has provided more than $147 million in aid to the state of Florida over the past five years alone, and more than $33.9 million in resilient power infrastructure projects total across the United States, supporting community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and tribal health facilities serving vulnerable populations.
Each year, ahead of hurricane season, Direct Relief prepositions emergency medical supplies with healthcare providers across vulnerable coastal regions in the United States and Caribbean to help ensure continuity of care when storms strike.
