City of Miami sites distribute free sandbags for home protection from flooding
MIAMI - As the tropical storm unleashed rainfall all day around Miami-Dade County, there was a steady surge of people driving up to sites to pick up sandbags for free in order to protect their homes and apartments from any flooding this weekend.
The City of Miami set up two sites at Grapeland Park at 1550 NW 37 Avenue and at Little Haiti Park at 315 NE 62 Street.
There was so much demand for sand at Grapeland Park that they ran out of sand by early afternoon and workers at Little Haiti Park expected to run out of sand by 4 p.m.
Residents were allowed to pick up to 10 bags each.
CBS4'S Peter D'Oench followed Orlando Pedroso of Miami as he said he only needed 3 bags of sand to protect his nearby apartment from any flooding.
"Several years we had flooding from a nearby canal that overflowed and caused problems. I hope we have no flooding this time. I want to be prepared," Pedroso said.
"I have been living here for 19 years with my husband and we are very concerned about the drainage. We are very concerned as the rain keeps coming down," Pedroso's wife, Kathia Camacho said.
"Right now we are allowing people to come and get the bags we have filled up. We are trying to help the community and help them any way we can," Little Haiti Park manager Drolin Celestin said.
Peggy Jimenez drove up and received 10 bags of sand at Grapeland Park.
"Last time during a storm there was water that went into my garage and so I want to protect it by getting 10 bags of sand. I can do that and that is all that counts," she said.
Residents said they had been following the news and the latest alerts and were acutely aware of the damage that can be done by up to 7 inches of rain which was in the forecast.