The City of Augusta ran out of sandbags just 30 minutes after it began.
The city had announced it was offering the free sandbags Thursday, ahead of Hurricane Ian’s arrival.
The distribution, which was hosted at 2316 Tobacco Road, started at 3 p.m. Thursday and all of the sandbags were gone by 3:30 p.m. Residents were allotted up to five bags each, according to a news release from the city.
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Sallie Blandenberg, a City of Augusta supervisor, said she was not expecting to run out so quickly.
“I was expecting a little longer, but I guess we were a little short of demand for the sandbags,” she said.
Blandenberg said she wasn’t sure how many bags the city had to distribute because she came in at the last minute, but she thinks it was about 700.
Blandenberg said she would advise those who did not have the opportunity to pick up bags at the drive to try finding them at home improvement stores or even getting dirt from around the house and putting it in bags yourself.
