Nature of Incident: Todd Road Jail to Assist in Building Sandbags for El Niño
Location: 600 Todd Road Lane, Santa Paula, CA
Date & Time: November 16, 2015
Unit(s) Responsible: Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services
Narrative:
Upon learning about the developing El Niño condition in the Pacific Ocean, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services along with numerous other Federal, State, County and City agencies initiated a rigorous planning and preparedness campaign geared towards evaluating local response and recovery capabilities. One area that was unanimously identified as being difficult and time consuming was the filling and transportation of sandbags during flood conditions.
In an effort to alleviate the drain on first-responder labor and resources and more effectively build sandbags for flood fighting, the Office of Emergency Services has partnered with the Todd Road Jail staff to purchase a sandbag filling machine capable of filling bags at a rate of 1,000 bags per hour. Bulk materials including sand, sandbags and pallets have been pre-staged at the jail facility in Santa Paula and will be available for emergency use countywide. Several inmates at the facility have been trained on the safe operation of the machine and the production of sandbags. These inmates will serve as the primary workforce behind the mass production effort. The Ventura County Fire Department will be prepositioning the sandbags throughout the county for emergency flood fighting purposes by fire personnel only.
For more information on where residents can obtain sandbags please visit www.readyventuracounty.org/elnino
Prepared by: Patrick Maynard, Emergency Manager
News Release Date: November 11, 2015
Media Follow-Up Contact: Patrick Maynard, 805-654-3843
Approved by: Kevin McGowan, 805-654-2552
