On September 28, 2022, Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida. An estimated 3.28 million customers lost power within the state. While tragic, the storm provided a unique opportunity to study the performance of utility poles that had been strengthened with Osmose trussing systems.
The study revealed that poles upgraded with Osmose’s Tough Truss® Upgrade system sustained 150+ mph windspeeds during the hurricane and over 98% of the trussed poles had sufficient resiliency and survived. The study proves that trusses are a long-term, life extension solution and are a powerful tool in grid resilience.