Ask yourself, if you are given sandbags to protect your beloved home, what will you exactly do with these?
One sandbag may seem undeniably useless, but what happens when many sandbags surround your house circularly like the policemen securing the prime minister. It becomes a reality version of the forcefield you see in video games!
What Do Sandbags Do In a Hurricane?
Whenever we think about sandbags, we imagine it’s usage in military fortification, leave construction, erosion control, or traffic control. But we often forget that it also serves as a major role in playing the flood wall.
When a disaster like a hurricane declares its arrival, people prepare their sandbags as this natural disaster can bring high winds and dangerous amounts of inches of rainfall.
Especially, the weather in the valley is uncertain and often attacked effortlessly, so most people there also get their sandbags ready to stop landslides and flooding in places that are usually targeted.
Sandbags are the most common, cheapest, and effective way to protect and depreciate flood damage if you use them properly.
Let it be minor flooding, but if a foot of water keeps roaming around your house, it can cause serious damage. So to protect doorways, you can also use urethane foam along with the sandbags.
Sandbags, which weigh 30 to 40 pounds, can successfully guard and anchor the door’s plastic sheeting.
This may not block all the doors, and the foam may peel paint but disposing of sandbags and cleaning the mess of the foam would be much easier than facing the catastrophic consequences of having water inside your house.
How Do Sandbags Work?
The usage of sandbags is simple, and it minimizes flood water damage by blocking the doorways, drains, maintenance hole covers, and garden furniture.
If the sandbags are properly filled and placed in the right position, they can act as an obstacle to divert moving water around.
They can also filter out few muddy sediments found in floodwaters. Even though the build-up of sandbags does not ensure a water-tight seal, it has assisted many people in extreme situations.
As many people follow the pyramid placement of sandbags formed by alternating header courses (bags placed crosswise) and stretcher courses (bags placed lengthwise), it increases the height of protection as well. The best part of it is that it’s effortless to obtain.
It is essential for everyone who is building a sandbag wall to be provided with personal safety equipment, such as; gloves and steel toe boots. If you use dry sand, use safety glasses for eye protection.
READ ALSO – Protect Your Car From Hail Damage
Where to Get Sandbags for Flooding?
When facing a tough situation like flooding, what comes after protecting you and your family is keeping the water out of your home. As you know, now there are several ways of obstructing water from coming inside buildings, and plotting sandbags is the most common method to keep a dry atmosphere inside.
There are several different areas where sandbags are provided per person, either as a giveaway or by selling, and they ensure everyone gets some when facing this critical state.
The accessible places to find sandbags in your area are usually;
- SES Centers
- Camping Stores
- Gardening Centers
- Hardware Stores
- Emergency Services
Moreover, everyone should know that a sandbag is the cheapest and easiest aid to keep your home dry and your property safe.
How to Lay and Stack Sandbags?
This is a significant part of an emergency. Down below, I will list how to sandbag a doorway.
- Firstly, recognize the weak spots that can be victimized by the entry of floodwater at your doorways and low-entry windows.
- Take the sandbag and fold the top of it down and rest the other bags on their top, which is folded.
- Be careful when stacking sandbags and place them in the uphill or upstream direction because you have to prevent the bag from leaking as the impact of water flows by.
- Place each sandbag in a layer and start building the next layer.
- Make three layers, like a brick wall with each row that will give a tighter seal.
- Keep a track clear for rubbish flow.
- Set a plastic sheet between the building and the bags to avoid water discharging into sliding glass doors.
- Dispose of sandbags immediately after the flood attack as they may contain sewage and hazardous materials, which may be injurious for people. These bags will become progressively worse if displayed to get wet and dry for a long time.
DIY – How to Make Your Sandbags to Prevent Flooding
Take the trash bags (the most available material at everyone’s home) that have zip ties and place the sand/soil inside, which will create a layer of protection. You can fill your bags with sand/soil just a few more than half full.
Then the bags will be easier to be shaped and be an effective wall fearlessly battling the flood as they aren’t filled. It will stay long enough to stop water from entering. The zip ties will prevent the seal from busting open at the weakest seam.
To make a sturdier sandbag that will survive longer, you can use burlap bags and fill 1 part of cement and ten parts of sand/soil. Then place it in a stack and sprinkle it with water.
Don’t Have Sandbags? What to Use Instead of It?
You don’t need to have a panic attack if there’s no availability of sandbags nearby or not being able to access them because there are many other ways to armor your home from tragic flood water.
The following shows the alternative of sandbags and it’s filling.
Alternative of Sandbags:
- Tarpaulins
- Pillowcases
- Strong plastic bags
- Burlap bags
Alternatives of Bag Filling:
- Pebbles
- Potting Mix
- Dirt
- Litter of Kittens
- Blankets and Rags
Final Thoughts
Do you feel the disastrous hurricane reaching near to approach you? Frightened to death for letting awful things happen in the future?
Now you have a solid knowledge of preparing for sandbags to stay secured in those threatening days!
Find the Best Weather Station of your choice to stay updated about the surroundings. Click on The Weather Station.
