Sand bag site available for residents in Appleton. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — As residents in Appleton are still reeling from flooding earlier this month, the city has offered up sand bags in the event that more rain arrives.
That opportunity was given to residents Tuesday, even while the weather looks like it will be calming down this week.
“We’ve had a very wet summer, a lot of rain here recently. A couple of flash flooding events,” said Nate Lober, deputy director of Appleton Public Works. “And we wanted to just help people get prepared for what might come again.”
Joseph Johnson was at the Appleton Memorial Park site gathering sandbags for his home — not necessarily in preparation for an immediate flooding threat, but to be prepared for a future event.
“I had some water erosion around my basement windows and I wanted to get the sandbags to lay along there, just in case we get another storm out of nowhere,” said Johnson.
Johnson says he’s appreciative of the service and wouldn’t go as far to say the city waited too long to offer up the opportunity, but he wishes there was a better heads up.
“I wish it would’ve been made more public, more because nobody knows about it. I mean, I walked through the park, I talked to a couple people even walking through the park, which is my morning walk, and nobody knew they were even over here. And I wouldn’t have known had I not just walked by and happened to see it,” said Johnson.
The city first released details on the sandbag site Monday afternoon to media partners, as well as city government social media pages.
So, why now, and why not sooner? Appleton’s mayor Jake Woodford said Tuesday was the earliest they could get everything in place.
“We’ve been working as fast as we can to pull this program together, like I said before, this isn’t something that we’ve done before and when you’re doing something for the first time it just, it takes some time to get the bags. We’re getting 5,000 bags and sand to fill them,” said Woodford on Monday.
More opportunities for sandbags are available this week. Residents can fill bags Wednesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
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