# Lower Your Pool Before a Hurricane? Collier County Answer

> UF/IFAS says do not drain or partially drain a pool before a storm. Here is the mechanism, the safe pre-storm sequence, and when to lower it in Collier County.

[Home](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/) / [Insights](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/blog/) / Naples and Collier County Insights · Naples and Collier County

# How much should you lower your pool before a hurricane in Collier County?
A named storm is in the cone and you have hours, not days. The answer to the water level question is shorter than you expect, it comes from a university rather than a comment thread, and half of what gets argued about has no source behind it at all.
**Clayton Waggoner**, Owner and Managing Member · Published August 13, 2026 · 17 min read

In this article
None. The University of Florida IFAS Extension instructs Florida pool owners not to drain or partially drain a pool before a storm [1](#ref-1). A full pool resists the saturated ground pressing in on it from outside. If you are looking up how much to lower pool water before a hurricane, the Collier County answer and the University of Florida answer are the same one: leave it. The correct pre-storm actions here are chemical and electrical rather than hydraulic. Shock the water, run the pump while the power holds, then kill the breakers and cover the equipment.
The short version
I. No primary source used on this page endorses any pre-storm lowering amount. The University of Florida instructs owners not to drain or partially drain, and the Florida Swimming Pool Association reaches the same instruction from the trade side.
II. The mechanism is the reason the instruction runs the other way from instinct: many inches of rain saturate the ground around the shell, and it is the water on the outside of a partly drained pool that cracks it.
III. Florida building code requires a pool in an area of high groundwater to be designed to withstand hydraulic uplift or to carry hydrostatic relief devices, which is the same physics written as a design requirement.
IV. The figures circulating in Florida pool groups, from one inch above the skimmer to three or twelve inches, carry no source. This page is not going to invent one, and neither should the page you read next.
V. The pre-storm sequence is shock, circulate while power holds, breakers off, equipment covered, furniture indoors. Not one step in it touches the water level.
VI. The lowering step is real and it belongs after the storm, once the standing water around the deck is gone and after the breakers have been confirmed off before anything is switched back on.

I.

## What do the primary sources actually say about lowering a pool before a hurricane?
They say do not do it. The University of Florida IFAS Extension published the instruction on 14 May 2024 in a single sentence: do not drain or partially drain your pool before a storm [1](#ref-1). The Florida Swimming Pool Association states the same position in its own words on its hurricane preparedness page [5](#ref-5). Neither one names an amount to lower, because neither endorses lowering at all.
That is worth reading twice, because it contradicts the most upvoted advice circulating in Florida pool groups every time a storm enters the cone. The UF/IFAS Extension office in Indian River County published Pools and Hurricanes on 14 May 2024, and the instruction is not hedged: do not drain or partially drain your pool before a storm (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). Partial draining is named in the same breath as full draining. That is the sentence a Collier County pool owner needs in hour one, and it is the sentence almost nobody sees.
The Florida Swimming Pool Association arrives at the same place from the trade side. Its hurricane preparedness page carries no publication date, so read it as a standing industry position rather than as news, but it is unusually direct for an association document: do not drain your pool, because the weight of the water keeps the pool from being lifted off its foundation and popping out of the ground under pressure from Florida's high water table [5](#ref-5).
Two independent bodies, a land grant university extension service and a statewide trade association, reach one instruction by one mechanism. In consumer guidance for this trade that is about as settled as anything gets.
The window in which this matters is open right now. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and the peak is September 10, with most activity occurring between mid-August and mid-October (NOAA National Hurricane Center, retrieved 2026) [4](#ref-4). For Collier County that is roughly ten weeks in which the forecast cone is a live question rather than a seasonal abstraction.
One boundary before the rest of this. The subject here is the pool and the pre-storm sequence around it. This is not evacuation guidance, and nothing below outranks an instruction from Collier County Emergency Management. If the county says leave, leave, and read the post-storm section when you are back.
II.

## Will my pool pop out of the ground if I drain it before a storm?
That is the real risk, and it runs opposite to instinct. Rain saturates the soil around the shell, and it is the water on the outside of a partially drained pool that cracks it, according to UF/IFAS Extension [1](#ref-1). Florida building code answers the same problem by requiring a pool in an area of high groundwater to withstand hydraulic uplift or to carry hydrostatic relief devices [2](#ref-2).
The mechanism is worth reading in the source's own words, because it is more specific than any summary of it. In a storm, when many inches of rain are expected, the ground surrounding a pool will become saturated, and all that extra water on the outside of even a partially drained pool could cause the pool to crack under the weight of water (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). The same passage adds that draining could cause leaks or major plumbing damage, could inflict severe damage to the pool's electrical wiring, and that damage to the pool decking structure could be catastrophic (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1).
The building code treats that as an engineering condition rather than a warning. A Florida Building Commission staff document quoting the code's swimming pool provisions states that if the area is subject to high ground water, the pool shall be designed to withstand hydraulic uplift or shall be provided with hydrostatic relief devices [2](#ref-2). The section numbering in that document predates the current edition of the code, so what is published here is the requirement, not a subsection number.
Florida's flood provisions say the same thing in flood language. The Florida Division of Emergency Management, quoting the 2023 edition of the code in its January 2024 pool guidance, requires components to resist hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads and stresses, including the effects of buoyancy, during the occurrence of flooding to the required elevation (Florida Division of Emergency Management, 2024) [3](#ref-3). Buoyancy is the entire subject. An empty vessel in saturated ground is a boat.
Collier County is the case that code language is describing. The county adopted new FEMA coastal flood maps effective 08 February 2024, its first revision since the maps published in 2012 (Collier County Floodplain Management, 2024) [6](#ref-6). On the canal lots in [Royal Harbor](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-royal-harbor/) and [Aqualane Shores](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-aqualane-shores/), out on [Isles of Capri](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-isles-of-capri/), and inland in [Golden Gate Estates](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-golden-gate-estates/) where the surficial water table sits close to the surface through the wet season, high groundwater is not a hypothetical. It is the normal August condition.
So the honest framing of the popping question is this. A pool full of water is sitting in the loaded condition its shell was designed for, and UF/IFAS says plainly that if the storm does hit, the pool is made to hold water and can handle being filled to overflowing (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). A pool you emptied on the morning of the storm is in a condition nobody designed for, at the exact hour the ground around it takes on the most water it will take on all year.
The local read

### High groundwater is the ordinary August condition here
The code phrase is "if the area is subject to high ground water". In coastal Collier County through the wet season, that describes most of the map rather than an exception on it. The county adopted new FEMA coastal flood maps effective 08 February 2024, its first revision since 2012, and the reason an emptied shell is the risky one is that the pressure it has to resist is coming from outside.

On this coast the high groundwater condition the code describes is the ordinary wet season state. III.

## Why do the answers online range from none at all to twelve inches?
Because two real risks point in opposite directions and only one of them has a primary source behind it. Uplift on an emptied shell is documented by UF/IFAS Extension and answered in the building code [1](#ref-1) [2](#ref-2). Overflow across the deck is a genuine worry, but no primary source used on this page endorses any pre-storm lowering amount at all, and this page will not invent one.
This is the part competing pages get wrong in one of two ways. Some invent a number. Others avoid the question and fill the space with a checklist. The accurate answer is that the do-not-drain instruction is sourced and the how-much-to-lower question is not, and those two facts have to be reported separately rather than blended into one confident paragraph.
The numbers circulating in Florida pool groups are real answers from real owners, and they are mutually exclusive. The most visible answer in one storm-week thread is to leave it alone entirely. Another thread, packaged as advice for newcomers, tells readers to lower the level a bit. Others specify one inch above the skimmer, or three inches, or as much as twelve. Not one of them cites anything. That is not dishonesty, it is folklore, and folklore is what fills a vacuum where no authority has published.
The instinct behind the lowering numbers is not stupid either. If several inches of rain land in a few hours the pool overflows, and water that overflows goes somewhere. That is a real observation about a yard. What it is not is a shell integrity problem, because UF/IFAS states that the pool is made to hold water and can handle being filled to overflowing (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). Overflow is a deck drainage and landscape question. Uplift is a structural one. Trading a structural risk for a drainage one is a poor trade.
So here is where this page stops. The instruction not to drain or partially drain is published by a land grant university extension service with a date on it [1](#ref-1) and is reached independently by the state trade association [5](#ref-5). No amount of pre-storm lowering is endorsed by either. If the next page you read hands you a confident figure, the useful question is not whether the number sounds reasonable. It is which source the writer got it from.
0 in **Pre-storm lowering endorsed by any primary source on this page** *Both the university extension publication and the state trade association state the instruction not to drain or partially drain[1](#ref-1)[5](#ref-5). Neither one names an amount to lower, and no page should report one for them.*
What each source settles, and what none of them settle
Source Position on draining Position on how much to lower
UF/IFAS Extension, 14 May 2024 Do not drain or partially drain before a storm States no amount. Partial draining is named alongside full draining.
Florida Swimming Pool Association, undated Do not drain. The weight of the water resists uplift. States no amount.
Florida Building Code, as quoted by the Florida Building Commission A pool in high groundwater must withstand hydraulic uplift or carry hydrostatic relief devices Not addressed. It is a design requirement, not an operating instruction.
Florida Division of Emergency Management, January 2024 Components must resist buoyancy during flooding Not addressed.
Community threads Split, from leave it alone to lower it a bit One inch above the skimmer, three inches, twelve inches. No source given for any figure.

IV.

## What happens if you drain the pool and the storm turns?
The storm that turns is the common case, and the drained pool is the one that has to live with the decision. UF/IFAS Extension states that if you have drained your pool down below the skimmer and no rain comes, this could burn up your pump motor [1](#ref-1). A pump drawing air instead of water is running dry, and running dry is what kills it.
Forecast cones move. Across a season most Collier County pools sit under a cone at some point and then take a fraction of the rain the forecast allowed for. A pool lowered below the skimmer on Tuesday for a storm that goes to the panhandle on Thursday is not back to normal on Friday. It is a pool whose skimmer is pulling air.
What that does mechanically is not subtle. A pool pump is cooled and lubricated by the water moving through it. Once the level drops below the skimmer throat the pump pulls air, loses prime and runs against nothing. UF/IFAS is direct about the consequence for the motor (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1), and the trade knows the same failure by its symptoms: a pump that screams, a housing too hot to put a hand on, and a shaft seal that has already gone.
The same source adds that it could possibly even cause a fire (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). Read that as the reason the sequence in the next section ends with the breakers off rather than with a pump left running unattended through an outage.
Until that line is filled, the position on this page is the one above and nothing more: what the published sources support, with no story standing in for evidence. If the level is dropping and you are not certain whether that is the weather or something else, [telling a leak from evaporation](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/blog/pool-losing-water-leak-or-evaporation-naples/) is a separate diagnosis with its own numbers, and it is worth settling before a storm rather than during one.
V.

## What should you actually do to the pool before the storm arrives?
Four things, in order, none of which touch the water level. Shock the pool before the storm arrives. Keep the pump running while the power holds. Turn off the breakers and cover the electrical equipment. Bring the furniture indoors. UF/IFAS Extension carries the first two instructions [1](#ref-1), and the Florida Swimming Pool Association carries the breaker instruction [5](#ref-5).
Shock first, because you are treating water that is about to sit unfiltered for days. UF/IFAS says you may shock your pool before the storm arrives, that this will help stave off some of the algae and bacteria if your area does flood, and that the pool will probably need another shock treatment after the area is deemed safe, all debris is removed and the power comes back on (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1).
Circulate while you still can. As long as the power is still on, keep the pump running for as long as possible to keep the water circulating through the filter (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). That is the last useful filtration the pool gets before the outage, and it costs nothing you were not already spending.
Then kill the power. The Florida Swimming Pool Association instruction is four words long: turn off breakers and cover electrical equipment [5](#ref-5). Do it before the weather arrives rather than during it. A pad that is switched off and covered is a pad that is not energized while water moves across it, and that is the difference between equipment that got wet and equipment that has to be replaced.
Covering the pad matters more in Collier County than a four word instruction suggests, because a large share of the county sits in a mapped flood hazard area. Florida flood guidance permits pool equipment below the base flood elevation plus freeboard only where it is elevated to the extent practical, anchored to prevent flotation, and supplied by branch circuits with ground fault circuit interrupter protection (Florida Division of Emergency Management, 2024) [3](#ref-3). The same guidance says ready to use pool chemicals belong above that elevation, and chemical feeders count as pool equipment.
The furniture question has an honest split in it that you should know about before you decide. UF/IFAS says never place patio furniture and outdoor accessories into the pool, because the water and chemicals will cause corrosion of the furniture and chemical reactions will leave staining in the pool finish that generally takes resurfacing to remove (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). The Florida Swimming Pool Association allows it only as a fallback, saying furniture may be gently placed in the pool if it cannot be stored inside, while naming the same finish and chemical risks [5](#ref-5). Indoors is the answer both of them agree on.
Nothing in that sequence is a water level instruction, and that is the finding rather than an omission. The whole of the pre-storm job on a Collier County pool is chemical, electrical and mechanical.

Breakers off, equipment covered. The pre-storm job is chemical and electrical, not hydraulic. VI.

## When do you bring the water level back down after the storm?
After the storm rather than before it, and on a trigger rather than a clock. UF/IFAS Extension says to keep the pool full until after the storm has passed and the surrounding landscape has had time to drain, and that once the area around the pool is relatively dry of standing water it is time to bring the level back down to mid-way up the tile line or half-way up the skimmer [1](#ref-1).
The lowering step is real. It was simply never a pre-storm step. The trigger is standing water gone from around the deck, which is the observable proxy for the ground around the shell having drained, and until that has happened the outside of the pool is still the loaded side.
Before any of it, check the breakers. The Florida Swimming Pool Association post-storm instruction is to check your circuit breakers to be sure they are off before attempting to reconnect electrical equipment such as pump motors [5](#ref-5). That order exists because the pad may have been under water, the utility can restore power without warning, and a motor that has been submerged is not one you energize to find out.
Then clear the debris and shock again. UF/IFAS expects a second shock treatment after the area is deemed safe, all debris is removed and the power comes back on (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). Debris comes out first because running a filter against storm debris is how a filter becomes the next repair on the list.
One local caution from the same source, which people laugh at until it happens to them. Alligators, turtles, crabs, birds, rabbits, frogs, snakes and bears can all get confused by the extra water and downed trees and will show up in the strangest places (UF/IFAS Extension, 2024) [1](#ref-1). Look in the pool and behind the equipment before you reach into either.
Post-storm triage is a different job from pre-storm prep, and this page is prep. If the pool came through the storm but the equipment did not, or the shell has moved, that is a different conversation from this one. A pad that sat under water is usually a question about [rebuilding a pool equipment pad](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-equipment-pad-rebuild-naples/) rather than about the pump on its own, and a shell that has moved is [pool repair in Naples](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-repair-naples/) territory, starting with a diagnosis rather than a product.
The season is not over. NOAA puts the end of the Atlantic hurricane season at November 30 (NOAA National Hurricane Center, retrieved 2026) [4](#ref-4), so there is time to settle [what to do with pool furniture before a storm](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/blog/pool-furniture-before-a-hurricane-florida/), and to check whether [your equipment pad sits where flood rules and salt air will find it](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/blog/pool-equipment-corrosion-flood-zone-southwest-florida/), before the next cone rather than during it. The rest of the [Collier County pool guides](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/blog/) are here.

"The water in the pool is what is holding the pool down."

Ask Clayton

## Questions this article usually prompts
Tap a question. Clayton replies himself, here and on the phone.

** **Clayton Waggoner** *Owner and Managing Member · Splash Pools* Online
Tap a question to ask

[Not covered here? Call 239-450-5933, it reaches Clayton, not a call center](tel:+1-239-450-5933)

If this is the situation you are in
[Pool repair in Naples, diagnosed before it is quoted →](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-repair-naples/)[Equipment pad rebuilds, so the next repair is a part swap →](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-equipment-pad-rebuild-naples/)[Structural crack repair, starting with what is causing it →](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-crack-shell-repair-naples/)[Pool leak detection in Naples, with a finding before a shovel →](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-leak-detection-naples/)
References

- [University of Florida IFAS Extension, Indian River County. Pools and Hurricanes. 14 May 2024](https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/indianriverco/2024/05/14/pools-and-hurricanes/)
- [Florida Building Commission / Florida Department of Health staff document quoting the Florida Building Code swimming pool provisions, June 2009 Commission agenda](https://www.floridabuilding.org/fbc/commission/FBC_0609/9B-3_047swimmi_DOH_comments3staff.htm)
- [Florida Division of Emergency Management, Office of Floodplain Management. Guidance for Swimming Pools, Spas, and Similar Water Features in Flood Hazard Areas. January 2024](https://www.floridadisaster.org/globalassets/fdem-ofm-guidance_swimming-pools_1-2024.pdf)
- [NOAA National Hurricane Center. Tropical Cyclone Climatology. Retrieved 13 August 2026](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/)
- [Florida Swimming Pool Association. Hurricane Preparedness. Trade association guidance, no publication date shown on the page](https://www.fspa.com/hurricane-preparedness/)
- [Collier County Floodplain Management. New 2024 Collier County Coastal Flood Map, effective 08 February 2024](https://www.collier.gov/Business-Resources/Floodplain-Management)
[All articles →](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/blog/)

## The article is general. Your pool is specific.

Tell us what the pool is doing, a sentence or two is enough. The person who wrote this is
the person who calls back.

[Call 239-450-5933](tel:+1-239-450-5933) [Book a consultation](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/booking/)