Tropical storms & excess pool water

[dawndenise]

We've pretty much finished weathering Tropical Storm Ida and are none the worse for wear, thankfully! But the torrential rains made me wonder what to do with the pool in the event of an evacuation needed for a bigger storm. You know....when we're not at home to get the excess water out of the pool. The way it has rained here ever since we moved here also makes me wonder how people can go on vacation without worrying about their pools overflowing while they're gone!

Our pool is in a screened enclosure with paver deck between the pool and house. While there ARE some long, skinny deck drains, they're not extensive and I'm not convinced they'd handle an overflow situation without a problem. I'm also not sure the pavers are set to direct ALL the water toward those drains and away from the house.

When we moved in, there was no way to drain off excess pool water other than opening up the filter plug at the equipment pad. So, at this forum's advice, we had a hose bib inserted into our pool plumbing, so at least we can run a long hose and drain water that way. But, someone still needs to be here to turn the faucet on and off, or nothing gets drained.

Certainly, we can't be the only ones in Florida with concerns about overflow in an enclosure. What does everyone else do?

 

[JohnT]

You can essentially pretend like the pool doesn't exist in that situation. The water you'd see if the pool overflowed is exactly the same as what you'd get if the area was paved or a concrete slab. The only water that will come out of the pool is rain that lands on the pool surface after the pool is full.

 

[Brentr]

I had the same concern when we had our pool built however Johnt hit the nail on the head. When the pool overflows the water will just flow over the pavers and eventually some will flow into the drains and some off the pavers. This would be a good time to backwash to drain the pool and also in turn clean your filter. Hope this helps :-D

 

[dawndenise]

Thanks guys! JohnT, your explanation makes perfect sense - I feel like a bit of an idiot for being concerned!

Brentr...your idea to clean the filter to get rid of some excess water makes sense, as well. Now I wish I had that big monstrosity of a Sta-Rite System 3, 2-cartridge filter that I had on a previous pool - that filter had a huge capacity and could REALLY use a lot of pool water when it refilled after a cleaning!

 

[gman]

thanks for sending her my way, when Im supposed to close my pool this weekend.

 

[dawndenise]

thanks for sending her my way, when Im supposed to close my pool this weekend.

Yeah, the mid-Atlantic and East Coast states really got hammered a whole lot more than us. :lol:

 

[Brentr]

We did not get much here in Jacksonville. Wish we did because we are under a water restriction. In fact the whole state of Florida is under water restriction and can only water once a week