by

Stu Clampitt

Hamilton County Reporter

Due to the heavy rain in the forecast, Hamilton County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) is making sandbags available to all Hamilton County residents this weekend.

“The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch from Saturday morning through Sunday evening,” EMA Executive Director Shane Booker told the Reporter. “We can see heavy rainfall and what we are concerned with is the inflow of moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon coupled with the cold front that is going to stall over the area. We can see prolonged heavy rainfall during that time.”

At 8 a.m. on Friday morning, Hamilton County EMA took the proactive step of making sandbags available to the public.

“People can pick those up from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Sunday,” Booker said. “If we see there is a need to keep it open 24 hours a day we will do that and will notify people on social media to make sure everyone is aware. There is no limitation on how many they can take. It is open to Hamilton County residents only. They are available at the recycling center at 1717 Pleasant St., Noblesville.”

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers are on standby in case their assistance becomes necessary.

CERT is a group of organized and trained volunteer disaster workers that operates at the neighborhood level. Free training from the Hamilton County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) can help you be prepared to help when the worst happens. You can read more about CERT at this link.

“If we were to activate the sandbar 24/7 or have someone there full time then we would use CERT to do that,” Booker said. “They can perform their normal role where they are ready to assist people in their community, or we would use them as disaster volunteers where they could work in the county emergency operations center, they can help support cities local emergency operations centers, and they can do a whole host of things that we might need during a disaster.”

Hamilton County EMA has already reached out to the groups that staff the emergency operations center and asked for a staffing roster for this weekend, thus to have people available and on call to come in if needed. EMA is also in close communication with the National Weather Service to stay closely informed. Booker said EMA is pushing information on social media to keep people informed and encourage them to take this seriously.

“One of the things we always worry about is when people are out driving in heavy rain. If they are driving through flood water, they really have no idea what is under the water,” Booker said. “They assume the road is there, but you really don’t know for sure. We use the phrase ‘Turn around; don’t drown’ that comes from the National Weather Service.”

There will certainly not be a staffing issue if more sandbags are needed due to a partnership between EMA and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department.

“We keep between 2,000 to 3,000 sandbags filled at any given time year-round,” Booker told The Reporter. “We also have 10,000 unfilled sandbags. If we need to make sandbags we can use some of the inmate workers who would normally go out to perform litter cleanup and roadside cleanup.”

Due to potential liability issues, EMA cannot load the sandbags for you.

“When people come to pick up the bags they do have to load them themselves,” Booker said. “So if Grandma needs sandbags she should take someone with her. We have had several people who are surprised by how quickly these bags weigh down their car and some had to make two or three trips. After the flooding is over the sandbags need to be disposed of in your trash or in a landfill because you never know what may have been absorbed in the sand, so we cannot take them back, not does household hazardous waste. People must dispose of them as they would with potentially contaminated soil.”

You are advised to have a plan of attack and have your sandbags laid out before the water starts to rise on your property. Getting them after your property begins to flood is usually too late.

The Hamilton County EMA Facebook page can be found at this link.