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St. Pete prepares for possible flooding
The city of St. Petersburg is helping residents prepare for more wet weather by delivering sandbags to neighborhoods that have been hit hard by flooding. Justin Matthews reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - For the first time, crews from the city of St. Petersburg went door-to-door in Riviera Bay and Shore Acres to deliver more than 800 sandbags to residents hit hard by recent flooding.
Typically, residents would have to pick up the sandbags from a site or distribution center.
"It’s been so gut-wrenching what’s been happening to these neighborhoods over the last couple of months, and once you use a sandbag and it becomes wet, you can’t reuse it. We know how much pressure everybody is under, so we thought, what can we do to help out, and this is an idea we thought we’d try out for this time," said Claude Tankersley, the administrator for the St. Petersburg public works department.
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In addition to the 860 sandbags delivered to residents in Riveria Bay and Shore Acres, the city handed out another almost 1,100 sandbags from its distribution site at 1744 9th Avenue North.
St. Pete residents prepare for more wet weather with sandbags.
"We had to call in all of our staff. They were all home enjoying their beautiful afternoon, and we called them all in to make the sandbags, and then we put them in the back of trucks, and we’re bringing them out," Tankersley explained.
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It’s a lot of heavy lifting to deliver the sandbags to several hundred homes.
"We wish we could do this for everybody. We can’t. We don’t have enough staff. But, we know which homes were flooded during the last two rain events and so we’re going to those specific homes and knocking on doors," Tankersley said.
Crews deliver sandbags to St. Pete neighborhood ahead of more rain.
Public works crews plan to be back in the neighborhoods on Monday to deliver more sandbags to those who need them ahead of Tuesday’s predicted storm.
Sandbags are available year-round at the distribution center on 9th Avenue North.