Queen Creek offers sandbag station for monsoon season

It's Monsoon Awareness Week and Queen Creek wants to make sure residents are prepared.

Sandbags are one tool to help protect a home during a monsoon storm as they are useful in redirecting storm water and debris flows away from houses.

Queen Creek is operating a sandbag station for the public at Queen Creek Fire & Medical’s Fire Station 2 at 24787 S. Sossaman Road. All you have to do is bring your own shovel.

Here are some tips from the town to ensure sandbags are properly filled and maintained:

• Fill sandbags half full. Use sand if readily available, otherwise use soil.
• Fold the top of the sandbag down and rest the bag on its folded top. Take care in stacking the sandbags.
• Limit placement to three layers unless a building is used as backing or sandbags are placed in a pyramid.
• Tamp each sandbag into place, completing each layer before beginning a new layer. Clear a path between buildings for debris flow.
• Lay a plastic sheet in between the building and the bags to control the flow and prevent water from seeping into sliding glass doors.

There are limits to what sandbags can do. Sandbags by themselves will not seal out water, they will deteriorate when exposed to continued wetting and drying for several months, they will not be effective if placed too early, and they are used for small water-flow protection up to 2 feet, the town stated on its website.

Monsoon season runs from mid-June to September.