Tropics - Sandbags - Mikah Collins Hillsborough County

Many local governments on Florida's west coast are activating sandbag distribution ahead of a potential tropical storm. We speak with Mikah Collins of Hillsborough County about what you need to know if you're getting sandbags to protect your home.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. We're speaking with Mica Collins, who
is a program coordinator with Hillsboro CountyParks and Recreation. We're talking about sandbags.
Those, of course, become veryimportant in case of a hurricane or
tropical storm or any sort of rainor flooding event, and we wanted to
cover sort of the basics about usingand obtaining sandbags. And of course we're

(00:25):
talking with Hillsboro County, but alot of this could be applicable in Penellas
or Pasco, or any other countyin the Tampa Bay region or central Florida
or the rest of the state,because, of course, at one time
or another, many of those regionsmay have to deal with a hurricane or
other flooding situation. So, MichaelCollins, thank you very much for joining

(00:48):
us on Beyond the News. Ohthank you for having me. Well now,
during an emergency, one of thethings we always do in the media
is tell people where to get sandbagsin their local communities, from their particular
county or municipal government. We don'talways talk about the best ways to use
them. If you're in a floodprone area and you decide you need to

(01:10):
get some sandbags. You know somebasic questions here. Do they go inside
or do they go outside the house? What's the best way to stack them?
What are some of the basics ofusing sandbags to protect your property.
So most importantly the thing to recognizeabout sandbags is the purpose of a sand
bag is really just to be awakethat sandbag is going to go on the

(01:34):
exterior of a door. But importantlybefore you put down your sandbags is you
want to have some kind of waterbarrier. We recommend using biz queen or
another type of like plastic tarp thatis a thicker material. You're going to
cover your doorway from left or right, from door sill to door sill,

(01:57):
and then all the way down tothe bottom and flat on the round.
Once you have that water barrier inplace, you're going to stack your sandbags
on top of it. The bestway to do that is to lay down
about three or four bags flat onthe ground all the way up against the
doorway, and then you're gonna kindof pyramid stack them so they should be

(02:19):
overlapping. You don't want to haveany kind of cracks or creases in between
those sandbags. You really want themin there as tight as possible, and
we recommend stacking about three to foursandbags high, just depending on the type
of flooding situation you expect at yourproper so plastic tarp that covers the distance
of the door, and then youput your sandbags down. Now, when

(02:43):
you hand out sandbags in Hillsboro inyour county, how much does each resident
get and how much do they weigh? So each resident we'll receive ten sandbags.
Just noting, you know, tensandbags, it's really enough to cover
one, maybe two doorways, Sokeep that in mind when you're trying to,
you know, protect your property withthese sandbags. If you have more

(03:06):
than two doorways, or you knowyou have like a garage that experiences flooding
pretty bad, you probably want togo ahead and look for some alternatives to
those sandbags. Keep in mind thatthey really are just weights. What we
like to recommend to people is headout to your local hardware store buy bags
of playground sand They're relatively cheap andthey're pretty pretty pretty similar to a sandbag

(03:30):
itself. We do give out tensandbags to residents though, thanks to keep
in mind is you know, ifthis is a dry sandbag, it hasn't
started raining during the storm yet,they're going to weigh anywhere between thirty to
fifty pounds per sandbag, So that'spotentially up to five hundred extra pounds in
your vehicle. So keep that inmind, because you know, the loading

(03:52):
of the sandbags at the distribution sideis done by the residents theirselves, So
we recommend that you bring apart arewith you to help load, and then
of course once you get back toyour residence, you're going to have to
unload those sandbags and stack them upat your properties. Just keep that in
mind because they are quite heavy,and you know, if we get to
the point in the storm where it'sbegin raining and we can still distribute sandbags

(04:15):
before the winds get bad, thatthirty to fifty pounds is only going to
get heavier or once they get wet, and presumably a pickup truck would be
a better way to go, ormaybe an suv as opposed to trying to
get them in the back seat ofa sedan compact. Yeah, that that
is correct. A truck or ansuv is going to work best. If

(04:35):
all you have is all you have, then you know you might want to
try to put a couple in theback seat and then maybe a couple in
your trunk as well, just tokind of distribute that weight out so the
tail end of your car isn't draggingon the ground from that additional weightload.
Now, if there is an approachingstorm, as a rule of thumb,
and this will change according to conditions, how late do you try to keep

(04:58):
making those sandbags available? So whatwe do prior to a storm, once
we realize, you know, there'sa potential thread, there might be a
tropical storm, there might be ahurricane, there's the potential for flooding,
our park services team will go aheadand utilize these sandbag machines. We have
to start pre filling some sandbags andat any given moment prior to an emergency

(05:23):
operation activation, we have about twentythousand and thirty thousand sandbags pre made to
distribute to the public. We willexhaust that pre made supply relatively quickly with
ten bags per resident. There's alot of residents in Hillsborough Comty that come
out for these sandbags, and oncewe exhaust that pre made supply, will

(05:44):
switch over to the manual loading.And you know that's going to be a
resident who's going to be filling theirown bags using shovels. We do recommend
to bring your own shovel with youtwo that for that kind of sand bag
filling. But we will distribute orallow sandbag filling at these distribution sites until

(06:05):
there is a point where either athere's lightning them in the area that makes
it unsafe for our staff and residentsto be there for sandbags, or be
we reach a point where the windsare so high that there is a shelter
in place. Now with the premade sandbags, do you prioritize people maybe
with special needs, maybe you wouldhave trouble filling their own sandbags as far

(06:30):
as getting those distributed the way thoseare distributed, Yes, that is correct.
So at a distribution site when youarrive, you're going to be asked
for proof for residency. Normally that'sa driver's license or a utility bill that
shows you are at Hillsboro County resident. If you happen to be someone who
has special needs or has some sortof handicap, that's going to make you
from being able to load your ownsandbags. If you show your handicap placard

(06:55):
to the staff, they're checking foryour residency. They'll direct you to align
where we have staff that will actuallyload those for you. Now, unfortunately,
once you make it back to yourresidence, we were not able to
help you unload and place those sandbags. But at a distribution side, if
you do have special needs or somesort of handicap, we will help load
those for you. And it's notnecessarily that those pre made bags are specifically

(07:20):
for that, because even if weexhaust those and you are, you know,
handicapper, unable to fill your ownbags, once the made ones are
exhausted, we'll have staff help youwith that as well. All Right,
some good things to know, andhopefully we won't have to apply this information,
but some good things to know ifwe're dealing in a situation with the

(07:43):
hurricane, tropical storm, or anyother water event that could cause flooding in
certain parts of the county. MicahCollins with Hillsboro County Clarks and Recreation,
thank you very much for joining uson Beyond the News. Thank you