Sandbags in demand in San Mateo County

“I had brought some bags because there were no bags last time. ... She grabbed a bag and I felt bad saying they were mine, so I said let me help you,” Soto said.

He said another person gave her garbage bags. Unfortunately, the woman didn’t know the city was low on supplies, running out of bags and not offering shovels.

Soto said he came to grab bags because last week’s storm was pretty bad and it flooded his entire garage and reached inside his car.

“We got lucky, we were actually on vacation and we didn’t know what to expect but we were lucky we had a neighbor call us. And thank god he called us because we were able to come home and move one of our cars. A little bit of water got in it but I think we dodged a bullet,” Soto said.

Sven Edlund, the environmental programs coordinator at the city of San Mateo, said the city is doing all it can to support the residents.

“I think it [the storm] caught everyone by surprise, we never had this kind of demand,” Edlund said.

The city already dispersed more than 6,000 sandbags at its corp yard and ordered more bags that are on the way, he added. On Tuesday, San Mateo Lumber sold 1,500 unfilled sandbags and is down to 500 left. Sales representative Kenn Lipke said the city called the store Monday. Though it was closed, the store had an employee come down to sell the city 2,000 bags so it had what it needed for its sandbag stations. San Mateo Lumber is selling empty bags for 99 cents each. It also sells 70-pound pre-filled sandbags for $7.95. He suggests residents call ahead to make sure they still have either supply stocked before driving down.

“They can call ahead to make sure we have them so they don’t drive over here in bad weather, only to find out we are sold out,” Lipke said.

Other city agencies are doing their part to alert residents of ways to prepare for flooding. San Mateo resident Heather Sutherland said she got an email alert from the San Mateo Police Department, which led her to the sandbag location in San Mateo.

“It was incredibly helpful,” Sutherland said, who added the alert she received informed her that supplies were limited so she brought kitty litter and chicken feed bags that she used to fill with sand.

Her entire backyard was flooded and she is hoping the sandbags help alleviate Wednesday’s storm, which Rick Canepa, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said he anticipates 2-3 inches on the Bayside of the county through Thursday morning.

“We are expecting rain and wind to increase during the day Wednesday, strong gusty winds begin at 4 a.m. on Wednesday and continue until 10 a.m. on Thursday,” Canepa said, adding wind could reach up to 50 mph.

Another San Mateo resident, Chris Parisis, came to the corp yard to fill the sandbags he bought on Amazon.

“I just didn’t want to take them away from everybody else that needed bags so I just ordered some,” Parisis said.

Parisis’ garage flooded during last week’s storm and he came to the corp yard on Tuesday to take preventative measures by creating a barricade in his driveway.

Wednesday’s storm will be another atmospheric river, also known as a Pineapple Express system, which will periodically have heavy rain that will last until Thursday morning. They are known as Pineapple Express systems since they build up in the tropical Pacific Ocean and build up steam through Hawaii, bringing heavy rain and potential snow to the West Coast of the United States and Canada. The next storm system will be lighter and bring an inch or two of rain either Friday night or Saturday morning, he added.

Residents can find sandbag filling stations at the following locations: 203 Cornell Ave., Half Moon Bay; 1949 Pacific Blvd., San Mateo; 550 North Canal St., South San Francisco; 1000 Bransten Road, San Carlos; 110 Sem Lane, Belmont; 1 Twin Pines, Belmont; 567 El Camino Real, San Bruno; 600 California Drive, Burlingame; 600 block of Millbrae Avenue between Elder and Palm avenues in Millbrae; Hillsborough Town Hall, 1600 Floribunda Ave., Hillsborough. The cities are asking residents to limit 10 bags per resident.

San Mateo Lumber can be reached at (650) 389-9170. It is at 501 S. Claremont St.