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BLUFFDALE — A family-owned business in Utah is using a machine that can fill sandbags faster than anywhere else at a pace of 1,000 bags an hour.
They're called the Ultimate Sandbagger, and the company has already used them to build up a stockpile of more than 7,000 sandbags that are all sewn up and ready to go.
Brandy Elegante, her father, and her husband opened an excavation business a few weeks ago and they said already several governments have turned to them for help.
"I've worked more hours than I've worked in a long time, so that's been good," Brandy Elegante said.
The trio invested $100,000 in two ultimate sandbagging machines.
Brandy Elegante's father, Troy Shinsel said, "It's an investment, but we've been able to help Harrisville City. (Utah Transit Authority) has one of our machines currently. Draper City gets one next Monday, and so we can help these cities fill a lot of bags in a short order of time."
The machines can be rented out.
Shinsel and his daughter own the business; Brandy Elegante's husband, Tony Elegante, keeps everything running.
"My father-in-law said out of the blue, 'Hey, I found this sandbagging machine and I really think we could really be a part of the solution to the problem that's going to come with all the snow and all the rain that we've had,'" Tony Elegante said.
While many cities and counties offer free sandbags, there are often limits.
"There's some instances where the cities just can't get to them or they have special needs that the city won't take care of for them, and that's the void that we're trying to fill," Shinsel said.
Though these machines are called sandbaggers, they can work year-round bagging other materials.
"We can load anything into bags that will go in our hopper," Tony Elegante said. "So, we can load gravel, compost, horse cubes, horse pellets — all of that kind of stuff."
While it may seem all business, they said they are hoping their family can help a few others this runoff season.
Not only do they fill and sell sandbags, but they also deliver and place them. Click here for more information.
Several cities in Utah are already dealing with flooding. Here's a list of how and where you can help.
In an effort to empower Utahns who want to know the risk of flooding in their neighborhood, officials with the Division of Emergency Management have been actively preparing and updating flood risk information on its website.
The state's Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning program began updating FEMA flood risk maps in January 2022, covering over 5,814 square miles in the northeast portion of the state. With an active spring, the website has seen a surge in traffic.
