Hurricane season runs June through November, and the pool is usually the last thing anyone thinks about while they're finding the plywood. It's also one of the easiest things to protect, and one of the fastest to lose in the three days after. Here's the list.
Before the storm
- Do not drain the pool. A full pool is thousands of pounds of water holding the shell in the ground. When the water table rises during a storm, an empty pool can lift and crack. Leave it full.
- Lower it a few inches if heavy rain is forecast. Enough room for the rain, no more. Below the skimmer opening is too low for the pump to run afterward.
- Clear the deck. Furniture, toys, umbrellas, the skimmer lid, anything that can become a projectile or end up in the water.
- Shock and run the pump the day before. A high chlorine residual going in buys you time coming out.
- Turn off the breaker to the pump and heater. Before the wind, not after the power flickers. Cover the pump motor if you can.
- Do not cover the pool. A pool cover under a fallen limb is a torn cover and a pool full of debris anyway. Open is better.
- Screen enclosures: some owners remove a panel or two to let wind through. Ask your screen contractor; it depends on the enclosure.
During
Nothing. Stay inside. The pool will be there.
The three days after
This is the window that matters. Warm water, no circulation, a load of organic debris. Summer heat can take a pool from clear to green in about three days under those conditions.
- Check for damage first. Cracks in the shell, a pump that took on water, a heater cabinet with debris in it, a bent enclosure. Anything structural or electrical goes to a licensed contractor before anything else runs.
- Get the large debris out by hand and net before you run the pump. Branches and shingles in the skimmer line are how a storm turns into a plumbing repair.
- Baskets, then power. Empty the skimmer and pump baskets, prime the pump, watch the pressure gauge. If the pressure climbs fast, clean the filter and run it again.
- Drain down to level if it's over. Rain and storm surge dilute the chemistry; you'll be rebuilding it regardless.
- Test everything and shock. Expect pH and alkalinity to be low from rain and chlorine to be gone. Balance first, then shock, then run the filter continuously until it clears.
When to call whom
Shell, plumbing, pump, heater, electrical: a licensed pool contractor. Screen enclosure: an aluminum or screen contractor. Debris out, water rebalanced, filter cleaned, and the pool kept from going green: that's a storm cleanup. Weekly customers get worked first, in route order, as soon as the roads are open.