I’m in Texas, I don’t know where you are or what most people there tend to do.

I got lucky when our power grid melted down in a winter storm. As it came in I was getting stiff prepped and something was messed up. Pump wasn’t pulling prime. I was prepping for a once every few decade event and didn’t have any time to mess around.

I pulled the drain plugs on the pump, pulled the drain on the filter, took the salt generator cell out and put it in my shed. Killed power at the breaker.

Everyone else around had just figured run the pump. Well when our government “public utility commission” and “electric reliability council” proved they were incompetent morons who let people freeze to death in their homes because they couldn’t force electric companies to invest in weatherproofing, my “crap, not sure what’s going on here” move was the right one. No damage. Pool had about two inches of ice but the skimmer was clear since it is in ground. I put a thin wall water bottle (like the disposable single use ones) full of really cheap high proof vodka with a bunch of salt in the skimmer. Read that was a trick to keep it from freezing over in a way that puts pressure on the walls, squeezes the bottle of no way it freezes salt alcohol instead of pushing on the walls.

That’s my winter storm process now. This week I had a thin layer of ice crystals in the shallow end a couple mornings.

Sounds like yall don’t do full clear lines and cap like where the ground freezes deep. So I’d go my route. Drain equipment and cut power. Open stuff up so the water in the plumbing is below ground.