Pool flooded HELP

[Geaux Swim]

Recent rains have had flood waters over pool decking and into pool for
Days. It’s nasty swamp flood waters, pretty sure I have half inch visibility at best. Pool has been under water for four days now and it may take another 5-7 days before flood water recedes lower than decking. I’m trying to get a game plan as to how to recoup quickly so that the pool can be used to cool off from the major cleanup that will be required outside the pool.
I removed pump and heater to protect from flooding. I’m considering just installing pump and not heater initially until I get water chem straightened out. I tested the water and ph is currently in 6’s. I’m expecting the blue finish that once was will be yellow brown stained. Will be using and elevated chlorine along with PH in range help remove?

16x38 ft gunite pool 7.5 deep end
Variable speed pump, cartridge filter, heater, robot vacuum.

 

[ajw22]

I would get one or two submersible pumps to drop into the pool to pump out the water. That is better then risking your expensive pool pump.

Submersible Pumps - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Then liquid chlorine is your friend. Stock up on liquid chlorine and start pouring it into the water.

Eventually you will need to scoop the muck up from the pool.

Precautions and Procedures During Floods - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Texas Splash]

Holy smokes!

 

[Geaux Swim]

Not sure about pumping out. Ground is obviously extremely saturated and high water table. I know it’s rare to float gunite pool but you can see how my luck has been as of late.

 

[ajw22]

I am not suggesting you empty the pool. Just pump it down to the normal water level.

 

[Texas Splash]

Geaux, I feel for you over there. Did you check the pool for gators? The concept would be to use such pumps to help suck junk out a little at a time - like a trash pump. Then keep it topped-off for support. If the water is still at the decking you'll have to wait of course. But if it has receded, you will probably go through a relatively lengthy process of vacuum to waste, followed by a top-off then repeat. At the same time, you could try to keep a decent amount of chlorine in there, but wow, that's a lot of vacuuming and junk. It may just try to go green depending on how efficiently you can get the junk out, but do what you can. Be sure to post back with an "after" photo for this transformation. Crazy stuff there.

 

[Texas Splash]

Also, don't forget to update your signature with all of your pool and equipment info. We refer to that on each post, and in your case, knowing your equipment is especially important.

 

[Geaux Swim]

Thanks. As bad as po is keeping out of house was successful and I’m certain that would have been 10x the headache as this pool.
Day before I lost pool pic

 

[HeyEng]

Already some good advice, so I don't have much to add in that department. But, I did want to send my condolences...that is quite the mess. At least this isn't IN your house!!!

 

[Geaux Swim]

Some gave me HTC shock. Could I start water treatment with this?

Also I’m thinking with a cartridge filter I may be pulling filters many times an hour.
What your thoughts on a sump pump on bottom. Pumping a level out of the pool ( bad water) adding fresh water back, allowing to settle and repeat until enough junk is removed before starting pool pump and thus running through cartridge filters.

Another thought, Do they make a mobile filter system I could rent to get the bulk of solids out of pool before running my equipment?

 

[Texas Splash]

What your thoughts on a sump pump on bottom. Pumping a level out of the pool ( bad water) adding fresh water back, allowing to settle and repeat until enough junk is removed before starting pool pump and thus running through cartridge filters.

Exactly what I was saying above. Just keep the pool full or with in a few inches. The shock is fine, but you better start shopping for some liquid chlorine. You'll need it for sure.

 

[Tena]

It's still raining slightly NW of you. Hope y'all aren't still getting it.
Best of TFP luck!

(Yes use that shock your other levels are probably all down too)

 

[ajw22]

Another thought, Do they make a mobile filter system I could rent to get the bulk of solids out of pool before running my equipment?

I have seen such a rig that pool service companies have built to use for pool opening cleanups. You need to calla round and see who may have such a rig in your area.

 

[TanyaK140]

Wish I could say we haven't been in your shoes before, but I cannot. This is our pool after Hurricane Harvey and my son in the kayak. The water level had already started to recede at this point. For reference, the spa is raised and sits about 12 inches higher than the pool. Stuff from the yard ended up in the pool, but thankfully no gators & not as much gunk as you appear to have. Once our power was restored, we just ran the pool pump continuously and dropped in a ton of liquid bleach. It took many days to get back to normal, however, given that the entire house was flooded, we had many other things to worry about it. We actually did not swim in it again until the following spring. We only had to replace the heater. All the other equipment just took it all in stride. Wishing you well on your journey!

 

[Geaux Swim]

24 hours into water treatment.
Started running robot vac today. 15 mins into cleaning.....

 

[zea3]

Dude! For a minute I thought you were about to start a crawfish boil! That is insane! If you have a pool rake try and net out some of those mudbugs so they don't clog up your robot. Were any of them alive?

 

[CrystalRiver]

You know the polyfill-in-a-barrel rig for removing iron? Using that setup with the trash pump would help remove the larger (and living) solids without you having to replace the water.

 

[Texas Splash]

24 hours into water treatment.

Getting there!

 

[Geaux Swim]

Dude! For a minute I thought you were about to start a crawfish boil! That is insane! If you have a pool rake try and net out some of those mudbugs so they don't clog up your robot. Were any of them alive?

Without being able to see the bottom we used pool net until we thought we had most of them out.
A couple really strong ones managed
To survive the bleach! As you can see pool has gone from swamp brown to green. Still adding bleach and cleaning cartridge filters every couple hours