Flagstaff to receive thousands more pre-filled sandbags to help mitigate flooding

Lacey Latch, Arizona Republic
·2 min read
Tara Howard-Fultz inspects the sandbags filled with cinder outside her back fence prior to more thunderstorms in the afternoon of Aug. 9, 2022, in Flagstaff. She said she had never seen flooding like this in her 31 years at her home.
Tara Howard-Fultz inspects the sandbags filled with cinder outside her back fence prior to more thunderstorms in the afternoon of Aug. 9, 2022, in Flagstaff. She said she had never seen flooding like this in her 31 years at her home.

After multiple rain events caused serious flooding across neighborhoods near the Pipeline Fire burn scar over the past few weeks, more pre-filled sandbags are on the way to help residents mitigate the impact of flood waters.

Flagstaff Mayor Paul Deasy announced Wednesday afternoon that the city is expecting 250 pallets of pre-filled sandbags from the Coconino County Flood Control District, adding at least 10,000 more sandbags to what is already in the city.

At least 28 homes have reported external or internal damage caused by flooding, Deasy said, and many of them already have countless sandbags on their properties.

"Even those who already have sandbags have been requesting and needing more," he said. "Some of these properties have 5,000 plus sandbags on a single property."

The pallets began arriving at the "Schultz Y" sandbag filling location at the intersection of Schultz Pass and Mt. Elden Lookout roads just before 3 p.m. Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Flagstaff city council authorized $270,000 to purchase around 100,000 more pre-filled sandbags from a private contractor. Over the next 48 hours, Deasy said, trucks should be bringing around 40 pallets a day to be spread throughout the city and county.

"We previously, with supply and demand, have had difficulty finding a private vendor to assist us with pre-filled bags," Deasy said. "And once we did find someone, we pounced on it as quickly as possible."

There's a good chance Flagstaff could see more rain and flash flooding as storm systems continue to move through the area.

"The high-pressure system that drives the monsoon is in a favorable location so were going to be in a deep moisture pattern with shower and thunderstorm activity most common along the higher terrain and then moving into the lower elevations of Yavapai County later in the day," said National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Peterson.

"And that pattern is going to hold at least through the weekend if not into much of next week," he said.

Contact northern Arizona reporter Lacey Latch at llatch@gannett.com or on social media @laceylatch. Coverage of northern Arizona on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is funded by the nonprofit Report for America and a grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation in association with The Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Flagstaff to receive thousands more sandbags to help mitigate flooding