Harvey is killing us in Houston Need Suggestions

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Miniman

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Jun 18, 2016
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HOUSTON/ TEXAS
Well don’t really even know what today regarding Harvey and the devastation it caused.
I am in Houston proper and right now have managed to avoid evacuation & getting water in my house.
It has been pretty much a constant effort to divert the water from coming in. Last week I asked the question to cover or not cover having no earthly idea the amount of damages & destruction that would be caused. I ended up during the storm to continue to let water out of pool and when possible ran the pump. My equipment is platformed and electric is protected now my water level is at a point that I would really like to treat it and run my pump during the light. It is still raining so I don’t know if I should test water and treat or just add shock, or acid. Any general suggestions. I don’t want to wait till the end and have to deal with major and that is why I have been baby stepping through the storm
Harvey is a tough one please pray for Houston and all of Texas.
:shock:



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I can't even wrap my head around that much rainfall! My prayers have been going out for all of you.

If it were me, I'd try to get at least some chlorine in. As soon as you are able to run full tests (your CYA may have gone down) then you can see where you need to go from there.
 
What a pic, so much destruction. I've been talking with friends down in Port Arkansas, one can't find his RV and another lost their condo... well when their neighbors blew off the structure theirs has an new open bay view... prayers being sent!
 
Sounds like you're one of the lucky ones, although I feel silly saying that. If it were me, since the rain will be ending shortly and you've avoided the worst possible scenarios from what you've described, I would backwash to an acceptable level, test and get your FC up to levels. Not much more you can do.
 
Hi Miniman, I'm not sure what part of Houston you are in which could make a difference in what you do and when. I'll give you my location and you can adjust from there. Like you, I've been learning as we go with Harvey on how to handle my pool levels and chemistry. Don't take me as an expert, but you might get some ideas, and others can chime in if I'm off base.

I live in Cypress near 249 and Spring Cypress, or more precisely, 249 and Louetta.

You can check my signature for my pool type, equipment, etc.

I've been keeping my FC around 8 throughout the summer. I've been lax lately about testing, but I did test the day before Harvey was to arrive. The FC was at 11 which I felt good about.

After the first 24 hours of rain, my equipment gave me low salt warnings, so I shut off my swg system. Tested again, the FC was at 8. I decided not to test other chems considering all the torrential rains we were getting.

Today, we had rain until about noon, but a nice slow, steady rain. Now at about 6:30pm, the sun is out, and it looks like Harvey has left my area.

So, my suggestions to you are if you also feel Harvey has left. And these pertain to my pool so adjust for yours. If you're on the far east side, you may still be getting rains. In that case, I would keep testing the FC and keeping it at a decent level. Test once a day; add bleach if needed. If you've got sunshine like me, go ahead and begin the steps below I plan to use unless told otherwise by our friends here on TFP.

1. Raising my water level: I have been keeping the level below my skimmers the last 2-3 days to give me wiggle room for extreme downpours, especially at night while sleeping. We've just begun adding hose water to the pool to raise the level back up.
2. Pumps: as soon as the water level rises enough for the skimmers, I'll turn on the main pump and skimmers and let it mix for 30 minutes or so before I begin testing. At this point, my swg will still be off.
3. Testing for chems: first I'm going to test the FC and CC. Add chlorine bleach as needed according to Pool Math. If the CC is high, I will do a slam, but my water looks good. Each day I tested for FC and kept it around 8 or more. I also tested the CC. It's been 0 or 0.5 each test, so I think I'm good there.
4. pH: I'll test for pH and most likely need to add some muriatic acid.
5. TA: test for TA, but let the pH sort of 'lead the way' on what I decide to do with the TA.
6. CYA: I'm fairly certain I will need to add some CYA, so will test and do that.
7. CH: Again, fairly certain I will need to add CH increaser; will test and add.
8. SWG: so far, I've treated my pool as a 'chlorine bleach only' pool. Once I get the reading on the salt level, I will add salt per Pool Math. I'll let that circulate about 24 hours, then I will turn on my swg system.
9. I'll probably test 2-3 times a week in the beginning until I'm confident the chem levels are stable and adjusted to my pool's usual happy levels before Harvey intruded.

For me, I'm moving slowly these days, so these steps may take me a few days and will also depend on supplies available in the stores. I'll use Amazon, if the stores are still closed or out of stock nearby. The FC and the pH are my first concerns.

Let me know if you have any questions. I hope this is the type of info you needed.

All the best,
Suz
 

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I'm in NW Houston. This morning I checked the pool for the first time since the storm and My pool went from:
CYA 75 to 45
Salt from 2900 to 1550
PH went from 7.6 to 7.0

What a storm it was. I've lived in TX all my life and Houston since '72 and I've never seen anything like this. The rain just kept coming. We never lost power and the House didn't flood. We were very fortunate. Thank the good Lord. The pool pump and SWG kept going during tyhe entire storm.
 
it WAS insane. I can't believe how hard and fast it came down. We took the poo below the tiles to plaster and it was filled up in like 2 hours to the top of the coping. In.Sane. I posted my numbers in a previous thread. I finally got baking soda. Gonna let that settle in and then I am going to do another full test. needed 262 or something pounds of salt! gonna test that too in a bit.
 
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