Florida DOT
Hurricane Starlink deployments
SpaceX Starlink deployments that restored critical communications across impacted regions after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
- Role
- Technical Support Engineer II (Contract)
- When
- Sep–Nov 2022
- Team
- 15–25
- Method
- Rapid response, prioritized by impact
150
Starlink units deployed
2
hurricanes: Ian and Nicole
Statewide
deployment across impacted regions
Situation
Hurricane Ian in September 2022 and Hurricane Nicole in November 2022 cut terrestrial connectivity to offices and critical facilities across Florida.
Task
Restore network connectivity fast by deploying SpaceX Starlink satellite internet to areas without terrestrial service, on emergency timelines.
Action
- Coordinated the statewide deployment on an accelerated timeline, defining scope and prioritizing locations by operational impact.
- Configured and validated every Starlink unit, and documented the installation procedure.
- Logged credentials securely and set up asset tracking for inventory, locations, and deployment status.
- Confirmed installations with field teams, kept real-time tracking of every device, and reported status to leadership.
Result
- Deployed about 150 Starlink units statewide across both storms, restoring critical communications within emergency response timelines.
- Impacted offices and facilities kept operating while terrestrial networks were down.
- Every unit was configured, documented, tracked, and confirmed operational.
More from this role
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Jun–Aug 2022
Replaced 200+ end-of-life workstations across multiple buildings: scheduled swaps with users, migrated their data, updated asset records, and decommissioned the old devices compliantly.
On-premises server upgrade
Dec 2022 – Jan 2023
Replaced three on-premises servers during after-hours maintenance windows, with validation before and after, for better stability and minimal user impact.
Feb–May 2023
Assessed technology needs and deployed standardized workstations across SunTrax, a 475-acre, multi-building transportation research campus.
Day to day
Held 100% ticketing SLA compliance in a 10,000+ user environment; supported a four-host VMware ESXi cluster, Active Directory, GPOs, and VM provisioning; and automated workflows in PowerShell, raising departmental efficiency 50%+.
Tools
SpaceX Starlink / Asset tracking / Field coordination / Emergency response
Sources
- Florida provides updates on Hurricane Ian recovery efforts one year after landfall (Sep 28, 2023)
“SpaceX helped Florida deploy more than 300 Starlink units to provide high-speed satellite internet service units, enabling connectivity for recovery and first response efforts.”