With storm on way, many picking up sandbags

The Borderland continues to brace for a large amount of rain over the next couple of days.

With more than an inch of rain likely on the way, many in the area spent the day preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

ABC-7 spoke with everyone from the Texas Department of Transportation to the City of El Paso and El Paso Water Utilities about this storm. So far, everyone says they’re ready.

“Once a rain event begins to develop, then we put spotters out in various locations around the district,” TxDOT District Engineer Bob Bielek said. “We rely on those spotters to give us that information so that we can get our crews out to the right place.”

Bielek warned drivers to slow down so they don’t hydroplane on standing water, and turn around, don’t drown when it comes to water on roadways, which can be much deeper than it looks.

“Always remember if it rains too hard to where you can’t see, that’s what the shoulder of the road is for,” Bielek said. “Just pull over and wait until it calms down a little bit.”

City officials said they’re ready to assist TxDOT pumping water off the roadways. El Paso Water Utilities officials said they are removing all standing water, making sure their vector trucks are ready to roll and clearing out drains that usually clog.

El Pasoans appear to be paying attention to the forecast and heeding the advice about picking up sandbags. During the 15 minutes an ABC-7 crew was at the Stormwater Operations Center on Fred Wilson, several carloads of people came by and loaded up their vehicles with sandbags.

“Better safe than sorry,” said East El Pasoan Mary Gonzalez, who picked up her share of sandbags with her husband Geno on Wednesday. “We had a close call the last time. A few weeks ago we had some (sandbags), but we said, ‘You know what? Let’s go get some more.’ So here we are.”

Geno Gonzalez said he was glad that EPWU provides sandbags to residents.

“This is wonderful, it’s really great,” Gonzalez said. “Otherwise we would have to find another solution and this is the inexpensive way of doing it.”

There is a limit of 15 sandbags per household in El Paso.

In the Northeast, they can be picked up at the Stormwater Operations Center at 4801 Fred Wilson Avenue.

On the West Side, they are available at the Keystone Heritage Park at 120 Kappa Road.

In Central El Paso, they are at the Haskell R. Street Wastewater Treatment Plant at 913 S. Boone St.

On the East Side they can be found at Album Park at the corner of Wedgewood Drive and Lockerbie Avenue.

In the Lower Valley they can be picked up at Blackie Chesher Park at 9292 Escobar Drive.

Out in Socorro they are available at the Socorro Recycling Center located at Old Hueco Tanks Road and Mood Road.

In Dona Ana County, all 16 volunteer fire districts have sandbags to give out on a first come, first served basis. In Dona Ana County, there is a limit of 10 sandbags per residence or business.