After Hurricane Milton, colleagues across country send help to Helios

Helios Technologies has its headquarters in Sarasota but employs workers worldwide, and when they heard Hurricane Milton was aiming for the Gulf Coast, colleagues from around the country wanted to help.

“They immediately after the storm started pulling together emergency supplies and getting them on trucks,” says Tania Almond, vice president of investor relations and corporate communication for Helios, which has more than 2,700 employees across the globe.

Food, drinks, paper towels, dog and cat food, sheets, towels and baby items began flowing in to Sarasota to assist Helios employees who may have lost their belongings in the hurricane.

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The first shipments arrived on Oct. 14, in time for the reopening of the company’s two Sun Hydraulics manufacturing plants in Manatee County the following day. Sun Hydraulics makes hydraulic cartridge valves for Helios, and Almond says it employs 600 to 700 people locally.

When the Florida workers returned, they were greeted with “goodie bags of emergency supplies,” Almond says, “and we had food trucks on-site, just so employees wouldn't have to worry about packing a lunch.”

Colleagues sent supplies from companies across the Helios network, Almond says – including Enovation Controls in Oklahoma; i3 Product Development in Wisconsin; Daman Products in Indiana; and Balboa Water Group in California. Staff made signs expressing their support for their fellow Helios employees in Florida, with messages like “Sarasota family, we got you,” among others.

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“It's been really heartfelt,” Almond says. “It's been very touching, I think, to our employees here, just feeling the support from their colleagues in different states.”

During the storm, Helios Technologies powered down the equipment at its headquarters on 16th Street in Sarasota as well as at its three Sun Hydraulics manufacturing plants.

“We do have a playbook, obviously, because the company has been headquartered here since 1970,” Almond says, for battening down the hatches, noting there have been a “number of hurricanes over the years.” 

Helios closed its facilities Oct. 8 to prepare for Hurricane Milton, which made landfall the following evening on Siesta Key. “Safety is always number one,” Almond says.

Some trees toppled at the Sun Hydraulics campuses, which are near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Six days after the hurricane, two of three manufacturing plants reopened, while contractors worked to remediate wind and water damage at a third facility in Sarasota, Almond says.

“Every single person I've talked to so far since I've been back had some level of experience and damage and losing power,” says Almond, who left the Sarasota area during the storm. “Some people who live down on Siesta Key are in way worse shape than others. … It's quite a spectrum.”

The day after the storm, the Helios IT team was on the ground ensuring connectivity, Almond says, and the company stayed in touch with its employees through text messages, phone calls and emails. She says the level of resilience Helios employees are demonstrating is noteworthy.

“It’s amazing to see how some of these people are dealing with both their personal family and what happened with their homes and still coming in and trying to make sure our facilities are secured and safe,” Almond says. “It’s just herculean.”