Pump off standing water first.

You don’t pull a stuck pool cover off — you pump the water off first, then slide the cover.

Heavy rain leaves a pond on top of your cover, and that water weight is what makes it feel glued down. Yanking it will rip the material or pull the anchors out of the deck.

Use a small submersible pump (a cheap utility pump works fine) to drain the standing water. If you don’t have one, a siphon hose works, or even a wet-dry vac on blow mode to push it off low spots. The goal is to get the cover light enough that you can grab the edges and slide it off without straining the fabric or yourself.

Check for debris like branches or leaves before you slide — they’ll tear the cover if you drag them across the coping. And don’t stand on the cover while pumping; it’s slippery, and you might fall in.

Patience here saves you a weekend of patching or replacing.