ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — First things first folks, if you need sandbags in St. Pete on Tuesday or Wednesday, here’s where to go in St. Petersburg:
Full-Service Locations - Hours of Operation: 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
- Stormwater Pavement & Traffic Operations Building, 1744 9th Ave. N
- Lake Maggiore Park Shelter Area - 3601 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. St. S
- Northeast Park East Baseball Field Parking Lot - 955 62nd Ave. NE
- Northwest Swimming Pool Parking Lot Park - 2331 60th St. N
Self-Service Locations - Hours of Operation: 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
- Dell Homes Park - 2741 22nd St. S
- Fossil Park Northern Most Parking Lot - 6875 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. St. N
- Walter Fuller Soccer Field Parking Lot - 2800 75th St. N
Those sandbag sites are just one of many things the city of St. Pete is doing to prepare for the mid-week storm that likely will become Hurricane Helene. The record-setting rainfall we've seen over the past six weeks has added some wrinkles to preps this time around. With an already saturated ground, it might not take much for flooding, and the city is getting ready.
Stormwater management was out in the streets with sweepers and rapid response teams clearing drains and removing debris, which has been a near-constant problem with all the recent rain.
“The more rain you get,” says senior stormwater operations manager Michael Perry. “The more runoff you get, the more debris you get. We come into that situation a lot where we have continuous rains.”
If you can’t get it removed, they ask you put debris in your garbage bin and bring that inside.
“If you're fertilizing your lawn or you have all this organic debris,” Perry adds. “That stuff is breaking down in our waterways and it's causing water quality impacts.”
Pump stations are already out in the most vulnerable spots in east St. Pete. Tomorrow the drainage cleaning operation moves to the western part of the city. And they’ve dropped the water level at Lake Maggiore a few inches already.
“Get as much capacity as possible into Lake Maggiore as well, it acts as like a storage basin for rainwater.”
The city last year got millions in state money to improve flow at the lake as part of its stormwater master plan. It's the people who live downstream along Salt Creek who hope flushing some water out now will save them from flooding later.