Guides / Storm season

Golf Cart Hurricane Prep: Before the Storm, During, and the Saltwater-After

Checklist for June to November: charge, raise, disconnect, cover, and above all never charge or drive a cart that has been in saltwater.

Hurricane season on the Gulf coast runs from June through November. A golf cart is a battery pack on wheels parked in the lowest building on the lot, which is exactly where storm surge goes first. Most of the work is done before the storm, and most of the damage happens after it, when a cart that has been sitting in saltwater is plugged in or driven.

Never charge or drive a golf cart that has been in saltwater. Everything else on this page is detail.

Before the storm

Start when a watch is issued, not when a warning is. The same list applies to lead-acid and lithium carts unless noted.

Charge the pack fully. Pinellas County’s advice ahead of Hurricane Helene in September 2024 was to charge battery-powered vehicles before outages. For a lead-acid pack there is a second reason: a discharged pack sulfates while it sits, and Trojan notes a discharged pack can freeze in cold, which is not the Gulf coast problem but makes the point that a stored pack should be full.
Move the cart to high ground. Pinellas County says to move EVs and battery-powered vehicles, including golf carts and e-bikes, out of surge-prone garages. Water that gets into a battery pack can damage cells and cause fire. If your garage is in a surge zone, the cart goes somewhere higher, even if that is a friend’s driveway inland.
Turn the cart fully off and disconnect the battery. Evolution’s manufacturer guidance (17 July 2025) is to switch off and disconnect the lithium pack before the storm. For lead-acid, pull the main negative cable. Either way, the pack is isolated from the controller and charger.
Put a lithium pack into storage mode if it has one, or put the cart in TOW mode if the pack stays installed. Trojan’s storage targets are a full charge and an ideal temperature range of 32 to 80 °F.
Unplug the charger from the wall. A surge through the house wiring can take out the charger even if the cart stays dry.
Fit an all-weather enclosure or cover, and tie it down. Wind-driven rain gets under a loose cover and into the seat, console and charge port.
Take photos of the cart and its serial number for the insurance file.

During the storm

Leave it alone. Do not go out to check on it. Do not run a charger off a generator in a closed garage. If water comes into the space where the cart is, note how high it reached; that mark decides what happens next.

After the storm

The temptation is to get the cart running to check on the neighbourhood. Resist it until you know what the water did.

If the cart was in saltwater, or you are not sure it was not, treat the battery pack and all wiring as scrap until a dealer has inspected it. This is our advice as a dealer; we found no manufacturer page that sets out a saltwater procedure, so we are not quoting one. Saltwater inside a pack is a fire risk, and it keeps corroding long after the water is gone.
If the cart stayed dry but got wet from rain, follow the manufacturer’s sequence: dry the seats, console and charge port, inspect for water intrusion, and only then charge, staying with the cart while it charges. Evolution’s guidance is to charge only when the cart is completely dry.
Never drive through standing water. Both Pinellas County and Evolution say so. Standing water after a Gulf coast storm is usually brackish, and you cannot tell how deep it is or what is under it.
Rinse the whole cart with fresh water once it is safe to do so, following the salt-air routine. Salt spray from a storm coats everything, including carts that never saw surge.
Check the brake drums and pedal area for sand and debris before the first drive.
Expect that any road open to carts before the storm may be closed, damaged or full of debris afterwards.

Insurance

Confirm your cover before June. The Sun City Center golf cart handbook notes that standard homeowners policies often cover a cart only on the golf course, and recommends a separate golf-cart policy for anyone who uses the cart for errands. A cart lost to surge in the garage may not be covered under homeowners at all. Ask your agent two questions: is the cart covered away from the course, and is flood or comprehensive loss included. If the cart is an LSV (low-speed vehicle: the tagged, titled, insured kind that every rental company on this coast actually rents), it carries its own policy, and the same questions apply to it.

Barrier islands and evacuation

A golf cart is not an evacuation vehicle. It cannot use the bridges and causeways that connect Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key, Siesta Key, Sanibel, St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island to the mainland; those are state roads posted above 35 mph and closed to golf carts and LSVs alike. When an evacuation order comes, leave in a car. If the cart cannot come, charge it, disconnect it, get it as high as you can, cover it and go.

For a snowbird leaving the cart behind for the whole summer, do the full before-the-storm list in May and ask a neighbour or property manager to check the cover after each storm.