Guide · 6 min read
Pool care before and after a Florida hurricane
What to do with your pool before a hurricane and how to recover it afterward. Why you should not drain it, how to protect equipment and how to clear the water.
Do not drain your pool before a hurricane. A partially drained pool can float out of the ground in saturated soil. Instead, lower the water a foot at most, shock the pool, shut off power at the breaker, and move loose furniture into the water or inside the house.
Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and every year we get the same question in the 48 hours before a storm. Here is the short version, then the reasoning.
Before the storm
Do not drain the pool
This is the single most damaging piece of bad advice that circulates every season. Ground saturated by a foot of rain exerts enormous upward pressure. An empty or low pool has nothing holding it down and the shell can lift, crack or pop out of the ground entirely. The water in your pool is what keeps your pool in the ground.
Lower the water a foot at most
If heavy rain is forecast and your pool is already at the top of the tile, drop it about 12 inches so it does not overflow onto the deck and into the equipment pad. That is all.
Shock the pool and balance it
Storm water brings organic debris, runoff and contamination. Going into the storm with high chlorine buys you a few days of protection while the power is out.
Kill power at the breaker
Turn off the pump, heater and any automation at the breaker, not just at the timer. Power surges when the grid comes back are what kill pool equipment, more often than the wind does.
Put the furniture in the pool
Counterintuitive and correct. Patio chairs and small tables in the deep end are safer than the same chairs going through your screen enclosure or a window. Do not put anything in that will stain or rust badly. Cushions and umbrellas go inside the house.
Leave the screen enclosure alone
Do not remove panels. Screen cages are engineered to let wind pass through. Modifying them changes how they load.
Take photos
Photograph the pool, deck, cage and equipment pad before the storm. If you end up filing an insurance claim, before pictures are worth a lot.
After the storm
Check for downed lines and standing water at the pad
If there is water around the equipment or any doubt about the electrical, do not touch the breaker. Call an electrician or call us.
Get the big debris out by hand
Branches, roof shingles, fence pieces. Do not run these through your skimmer or pump. Use a leaf rake, not the vacuum.
Restore water level to mid skimmer
If the pool overflowed, lower it. If it dropped, fill it. The pump cannot prime with the water below the skimmer mouth.
Restart the pump and run it hard
Continuously for the first 24 to 48 hours. Circulation is what saves the water.
Test and shock
Expect chlorine at zero and pH out of range. Balance first, then shock, then keep the filter running and clean it as pressure climbs.
Expect a filter cleaning
Post storm debris loads a filter fast. If pressure jumps 8 to 10 psi in the first two days, that is normal and it needs cleaning before the water will clear.
How long until it looks normal again?
A pool that came through with power back on within a day or two usually clears in 2 to 4 days. A pool that sat without circulation for a week is a green pool cleanup, which runs 3 to 5 days once we start. Either way, the pool is recoverable. Almost all of them are.
If you would rather hand it off
We do storm prep and post storm recovery across Seminole County. In the week after a major storm we prioritize existing weekly customers first, which is worth knowing when you are deciding whether to have a pool company on retainer in June.
Written by the Gil Pool Service crew in Oviedo, Florida. Published 2026-06-03.
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