Paramount Turns on Power to Fill Sandbagging Needs

What to do in these diluvial days when a city needs to stem the rising tide of rainwater?

Power sandbagging, that’s the ticket.

So says the city of Paramount, which this year bought a machine that works at least four times faster and with a fraction of the workers the city used to need to satisfy the demand for bags of sand.

In the old days, bags were filled one by one; four people per bag--one to hold it, the second to shovel, a third to carry it and a fourth to load it.

During this week’s small storm, the city delivered 500 sandbags. But during last year’s heavy rains, thousands upon thousands were deployed, says Paramount spokeswoman Linda Benedetti-Leal.

Because the town typically suffers flooding during heavy rains, especially in a couple of neighborhoods near the Los Angeles River, Harry Babbit, the public works director, commandeered everyone in City Hall to do their bit with the bags.

Clerks and secretaries, administrators and elected officials all shoveled, shoveled, shoveled for 10 hours at a time during the flooding.

Then Babbit attended a conference and happened to see Sandbagger Corp. of Illinois’ marvel: Four giant funnels! Gravity feed! Easy lever operation! Quick foot release! Fills in seconds! Absolutely no shoveling involved, guaranteed!

Price tag? $6,200. Paramount sprang, no problem.