Hurricane IrmaL Hundreds line up for sandbags at GT Bray Park | Bradenton Herald

MANATEE

In a show of Manatee County solidarity against an advancing Category 5 hurricane, a group of people, including Bradenton’s Megan Edwards, helped strangers fill and carry sandbags to their vehicles during a sometimes chaotic bag distribution at G.T. Bray Park on Wednesday.

At noon, Edwards was seen carrying two bags each weighing 30 pounds for a total stranger.

She was part of a group of sandbag seekers whose numbers, based on the line of cars and lines of people, probably rose well into the upper hundreds by day’s end.

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“We actually got here at 9:15 a.m. and got done at 10 a.m., but we have been helping everyone else out since then,” said Edwards, who got her own sandbags to guard against flooding of her apartment across the street from G.T. Bray Park.

At noon, the line of motorists concerned about flooding from Irma stretched from the heart of G.T. Bray Park all the way out to 59th Street West and was slowed down because people were having to park cars to shovel their own sandbags from a huge sand pile.

The residents, who may have been concerned that the bags or sand might run out, gave the scene a desperate and frantic feel.

But there is plenty of sand, Commissioner Robin DiSabatino said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. She urged people to be patient.

“It’s being replenished as it diminishes,” DiSabatino said. “All the stores assure us that they will keep supplies coming, so if you don’t have them, ask your store when they are anticipating them.”

Recent heavy rain in the county caused severe flooding in some areas, flooding out more than 60 homes.

County Administrator Ed Hunzeker echoed DiSabatino’s sentiments and stressed the importance of residents remaining “calm” and exercising “civility.”

“It’s actually pretty scary that everyone is working together and trying to get everyone out as fast as they can and get as many sandbags as they can,” Edwards said. “It’s nice to see everyone working together because it is such a big storm that is coming.”

A Bradenton police officer said that the amount of traffic just overwhelmed the process, which was supposed to include county workers simply loading sandbags into the passing vehicles.

Donnie Beghtel was one of several county workers at the park. He said the county expected the large turn-out.

“We are trying to get sandbags out to the residents of Manatee County so they can be prepared for the hurricane,” Beghtel said when asked why it all seemed kind of crazy.

The operation was expected to run until 6 p.m. Wednesday and will continue the next few days, Beghtel added.

Sandbaggers had to be patient

Donna Holmes, who has a house in Bayshore Gardens, was one of the hundreds of motorists waiting in a bumper-to-bumper line that snaked through the park Wednesday.

By noon, she had waited 40 minutes with her mother, Barb Scott, and she was still about 20 minutes away from where she could park her car or have someone load her 10-bag limit into the open trailer she had hitched to her car.

“I have to pick up my grandson at 1:30 p.m. from early out at school,” Holmes said. “I hope I can get out of here in time.”

Asked why she felt so strongly about getting bags for this storm, Holmes said: “I live by a canal. I live by Sarasota Bay. Even if we don’t get hit by the hurricane and get a lot of rain, water comes up on our street.”

Asked if she was prepared to shovel her own bags, Holmes had a quick reply: “I’ll do it. I already took a load of stuff to my daughter’s house in case my house gets flooded.”

A ‘gut feeling’ Irma will hit Bradenton

Holmes said she felt Bradenton was going to get hit on the chin by Irma. Edwards also said she expects Manatee will not be lucky this time around.

“I do have a gut feeling,” she said. “Even if it’s just rain, it will do damage. I think we are going to get a lot of flooding.”

Susan Mitchell, a Northwest Bradenton resident who looked perfectly dressed for a tennis game, arrived at the park around 10 a.m. and waited for a dump truck to bring sand and bags for two hours. Then she shoveled her own 10 bags.

“I’m filling these sandbags to protect my home,” she said.

This story was originally published September 06, 2017 1:51 PM.