El Nino Drenches: Where to Find Sandbags in Santa Cruz County

(How to fill and use sandbags, via California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection)

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY-If you’re in need of some sandbags, here are locations where the bags can be found throughout Santa Cruz County:

Santa Cruz-

Free sandbags are available to all those City of Santa Cruz citizens in need. Empty sandbags may be picked up at either location below:

• Fire Administration Office , 230 Walnut Ave., Monday - Thursday 8 am - 12 pm, 1- 4 pm
• City of Santa Cruz Corporate Yard, 1125 River St. Office 6A, Monday - Friday, 8 am - 12 pm, 1- 4 pm

Citizens may then fill the bags with free sand located at:

• Harvey West Park (at the entrance to the Parks Yard), 326 Evergreen St.

Please be prepared with shovel to fill the bags with sand.

Capitola-Soquel-

Capitola residents and businesses may pick up sandbags while supplies last:

• Capitola City Hall lobby, 420 Capitola Ave. (second floor).

Limited quantities of sand is available in the upper parking lot behind City Hall.

Soquel residents will find sand and bags provided by Central Fire at:

• Central Fire District - Soquel Station, 4747 Soquel Drive 831-479-6842
• Olive Spring Quarry -1399 Olive Springs Road 831-475-1610

Watsonville-

Sandbag Locations:

• Fire Station #1 (115 Second St)
• Home Depot (355 S. Green Valley Rd)

Come prepared to fill your own sandbags.

Other Santa Cruz County locations are summarized here.

County locations request that you limit yourself to 15 bags per household so that there are enough to share within the community.

Sandbag locations in the Santa Cruz mountains - and a lot of other useful information - can be found in this article by the Mountain Bulletin.

(Image via ShutterStock)