Rain preparations

A week ago, the remnant of a Mexican Hurricane blew threw, dumping 3-5 inches of rain over Phoenix in a very short time. The desert is not used to such a deluge. There were pockets of severe flooding, while many homes and businesses suffered leaky roofs or localized flooding.

One of the benefits of living in Arizona compared to NY was leaving Hurricanes behind! But we haven't been lucky in that respect, as the remnants of a 2nd hurricane is expected over the next two days. With the ground still a bit wet, I decided to get some sandbags for a low lying doorway.

Finding sandbags and filling them promised to be a challenge. The city offered free sand at many fire stations, but you were to bring your own bags. The local hardware stores were sold out. I found a bag wholesaler who had them, but they were a long drive away, taking freeways with accidents reported (ie traffic jams). So I decided to try my luck at the Ace Hardware at 32nd Street and Indian School Road. They were out of Sandbags, too. But more would be delivered in 30 minutes.

I waited and, imagine my surprise when they also showed up with sand! For $4/bag, they would fill the bags and load up the car. These gentlemen who filled the bags worked so hard and were incredibly polite. The men behind me in line loaded my car. I returned 6 hours later for 1 more bag to find the exact same scene. They had made numerous trips for 1 ton loads of sand - their only breaks. I left each of them a tip. I hope other people did, too.

(We didn't get much rain from the second storm, thankfully. Now we have to figure out what to do with these sandbags that will not last more than a few months in our hot sun.)