Pool closings on July 4th.

Today, July the 4th, the pool with the fountains closed at 2:45 pm just as I was about to enter the water for the first time. Its a hot and muggy, overcast, day. Perfect for cooling off with an occasional dip in the pool. Prior to this, I had been sitting in a lounge chair next to the pool for an hour and saw no lightning and heard no thunder. I asked one of the lifeguards why it was closed and he told me someone at another pool thought they heard thunder so the pool would be closed for 45 minutes. He told me he personally had not heard thunder. I checked with the manager who told me she also had not heard any thunder nor had any of her lifeguards, but since someone at another Broadlands pool believed they had, all three Broadlands pools were closing for 45 minutes. I think this policy needs to be revisited. In my younger days, I lifeguarded and managed pools for five years and never shut our pool down unless I or someone on my staff personally heard thunder at our pool. We live very close to a major airport, and on a cloudy day like today, its very easy to mistake the sound of lowing flying aircraft for thunder. If a mistake is made at one pool fine because only one of three pools is shut down (although I recall we only shut down for 15 minutes from the last time thunder was heard). To magnify this type of judgment call to where it impacts all three pools, I believe, is not good policy. Couldn't each pool manager be given a little discretion here?

 

It is hard for the staff at Summerbrooke to hear thunder with the fountains so they rely on the other pools to help them out.

 

Considering there are pop-up thunderstorms strolling through the area, I'm surprised they didn't just close the pool and hang a sign.

 

throw in a hurricane warning too

 

I thought it was tornados??

 

Nah - just the normal "End of the World" stuff.

 

those too. I thought I saw an ark

 

And we didn't even got more than a couple drops....rainstorms seem to go around Ashburn more and more lately!

 

When i worked at a waterpark we had a number that we would call every half hour that would tell us if it was safe or not to keep the pools open. I wonder if there is or will be something in place like that in this area. I think it always worked well.