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Geri Spieler credits sandbags with helping protect her house from flooding damage during the storms that pounded the Bay Area earlier this month.
"The sandbags, I think, really saved us," Spieler, who lives in Palo Alto, said.
She's lived in the area for 30 years but had never seen rainwater rise as it did in the most recent round of severe weather during the first week of January.
"This year, for us living here, was worse than anything we had seen, ever," Spieler said.
But with the help of a pile of sandbags and a water pump, Spieler and her husband kept their Midtown home dry.
"It's really essential that the city have the sandbags when we have this kind of rain because otherwise we'd have terrible damage," she said.
As it was, weathering the storms was a lot of work: Spieler filled the heavy sandbags herself at the city's Mitchell Park pickup site, hauled them home and got up in the middle of the night to turn on the pump so that water levels stayed below the height of the sandbags.
Across the Bay Area, many people were in the same situation — using sandbags to keep the rainwater at bay. Now, many residents are wondering what to do with their sandbags since the storms have passed.
Redwood City Public Works Director Terence Kyaw said residents have several options for approaching sandbags that are no longer needed. While residents could return to the Public Works department for disposal, the process "will create a messy interior in their vehicle and create unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions by transporting them."
Residents could reuse the sand from the bags on landscapes in their yards and on top of flowerbeds or low spots in their yards, Kyaw said.
Residents are encouraged to recycle the bag or place it in the garbage, Kyaw added.
Alternatively, Palo Alto city's public works department also recommends that residents keep their sandbags until the rainy season is over in case of more flooding.
The Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association recommends making a simple soil mix of 60-70% sand and 30-40% compost for planters and gardens. Residents can pick up free compost to mix with their sand at the Eleanor Pardee Community Garden.
In preparation for the storm surge, the county and volunteers used one million pounds of bulk sand and 15,000 feet of twine to create 21,000 sandbags.
In Redwood City, the public works department distributed a recording-breaking 16,000 sandbags during the first five days of the year in preparation for the storm.
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