Why Is Flood Control Necessary?
Flooding can cause extreme amounts of costly damage to coastal and inland communities. Durable flood barriers can help to control the excess water, diverting its path to prevent the weakening of expensive infrastructure, the destruction of commercial and residential properties, and the harmful erosion of land.
While there are many forms of flood barriers, when it comes to preventing loss of life and damages from dangerous floodwaters, TrapBags® are the consistently superior solution.
Methods of Flood Barriers
Self-Activating Flood Barrier
Self-activating flood barriers do not require human intervention to be deployed, other than the initial placement. Built-in wedges keep the barriers from rolling out of place.
- No fill necessary: Self-activating flood barriers do not require additional fill, as they are activated by the presence of water. While this could seem cost-effective, it is ultimately detrimental, as the design allows for initial flooding to pass through. Because of this, they are not fully successful in their flood controlling efforts.
- Limited capacity: Self-activated flood barriers only absorb a finite amount of liquid. While they can attempt to be stacked to soak up greater amounts of water, they quickly become unstable due to their long, thin design.
- Fresh water only: This type of flood control does not work with salt water due to a chemical reaction that results in the water being released from the barriers. This makes them an ineffective choice for many parts of the country.
- Shorter life span: Self-activating flood barriers only last for 3–12 months after activation, depending on the brand.
Inflatable Flood Barrier (Flood Bags)
These barriers, also known as inflatable dams, are cylindrical shapes made of inner tubes. They are often employed to protect residential properties from flood damage.
- Requires multiple people to deploy: These huge barriers require an external water source to be filled. 3–4 people must work together to accomplish this time-sensitive task, ensuring the barrier is completely full before a flooding event.
- Risk of compromise: Due to the nature of the design, if it becomes punctured, an inflatable barrier is compromised.
- Requires large perimeter to be set up: This method requires a substantial amount of land surrounding the area in need of protection, as inflatable flood control is quite large. For tighter areas of property in need of protection, there will not be enough space to adequately install the barrier.
Flood Gate Barriers
Flood gate barriers, also known as water retention walls, are often found in urban areas. They are installed to protect the surrounding municipality from storm surges and ocean flooding.
- Expensive and permanent: Flood gate barriers are very costly forms of infrastructure designed to prevent flooding by blocking off a water access area.
- Room for error: Extensive, heavy gates require manual closure before a flooding event occurs; if a winch is involved, this can become jammed, leaving the method useless.
TrapBag as Flood Protection
TrapBag barriers are the ultimate form of flood protection. Useful for all purposes, from residential and commercial properties to protecting entire communities and large forms of infrastructure, every aspect of TrapBag’s engineered design makes it a reliable method of flood control to be used during natural disasters or periods of heavy rainfall.
- Incredible durability: The high-strength geotextile material of TrapBag barriers ensures no debris can penetrate the exterior.
- Uncompromisable structure: TrapBags are leak-proof, an important characteristic for flood barriers. Constructed in an interconnected accordion fashion, even if one of the many individual cells is compromised, the integrity of the entire barrier remains intact, rendering a TrapBag barrier successful amongst the most powerful of flood waters.
- Easy and quick to deploy: When preparing for a hurricane, storm surge, dam failure, or other flooding event, time is of the essence. As a result of their design, TrapBag barriers can be quickly and efficiently laid in place before being filled.
- Cost-effective: TrapBags not only perform better than other flood barrier methods, they are also more affordable. They require 40% less fill than traditional types of flood control, like sandbags, making them a great option when a large area is in need of flood protection. For reference, one 100-foot section of four-foot high TrapBags replaces around 8,000 sandbags.
- Versatile: TrapBags can be arranged in a variety of ways to be used as flood control: dams, dikes, levees, cofferdams, water barriers, retaining walls, and for stormwater containment.
- Variety of fill options: Sand, washed gravel, and concrete can be placed into TrapBags, suiting the needs of the deployment environment.
- Long-lasting: Unlike many other forms of flood barriers, TrapBags can last up to five years, weathering all kinds of natural events.
- Temporary and permanent uses: If TrapBags are installed for temporary use while a more permanent solution is concocted, sand or gravel make for great fills. When filled with concrete, and the bag is subsequently removed, they can create incredibly durable, permanent barriers that are easy to install.
TrapBag Flood Control Uses
TrapBags for Dam Reinforcement
During periods of abnormally heavy rain or in the event of a natural disaster like a hurricane, TrapBags can be situated to provide stability to existing dams, preventing the extremely damaging flooding from impacting the surrounding community.
TrapBags for Construction Flood Protection
Construction sites often rely on dry ground to continue their work. TrapBags can be used to build temporary structures like cofferdams or water barriers, an affordable and efficient way to keep construction moving and site workers safe.
TrapBags for Agriculture Flood Protection
Flooding rivers can wreak havoc on farmland; if an agricultural plot is flooded, the entire season can be ruined, due to both the excess water and harmful debris it sweeps up along the way. When arranged parallel to the site in a dike formation, TrapBags provide reliable protection to delicate crops.
TrapBags for Natural Disaster Relief
After a natural disaster like a hurricane or tsunami, a community can be inundated with toxic flood water. TrapBags are incredible when deployed as storm surge barriers, diverting water to more appropriate spaces, protecting the surrounding ecosystem.
TrapBags for Infrastructure Protection
Every year, hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent building and maintaining essential infrastructure. From roads to highways to bridges to public transportation, modern society relies on functioning infrastructure.
TrapBags can be used to provide reinforcement to these important structures, as well as employed as necessary flood protection. For example, TrapBags can be arranged parallel to a road, ensuring waters don’t cross over and disrupt transportation.
Other Uses for TrapBag Barriers
In addition to flood prevention, there are numerous other ways to implement TrapBags to protect your community.
Erosion Control
The impacts of erosion are plentiful; loss of land hurts the surrounding ecosystem, decreases a city’s property values, and weakens the stability of the remaining land. Luckily, TrapBags can aid in the vitally important control of erosion.
Dune stabilization is one way to employ TrapBags for erosion control. When placed at the core of a dune, they help the remaining sand stay in place, offering integral shoreline protection.
Mudslide Protection
For those living in hilly or mountainous areas, mudslides can have dangerous and costly repercussions. The incredible strength of TrapBags makes them great at redirecting the heavy flow of mud and debris.
Seawall Formation
As sea levels continue to rise, well-constructed seawalls are of the utmost importance to coastal communities. TrapBags work very well as a form of shoreline protection, deflecting waves that could cause serious damage with flooding and/or erosion.
Spill Containment
Natural disasters and human error can cause potentially disastrous chemical spills. The leakproof design of TrapBags in combination with their ease of deployment ensures a reliable form of spill containment that can hold chemicals like oil while plans are put in place to get them fully removed.
Get TrapBag Barriers for Flood Protection
TrapBags are great to have on hand to use in case of flood emergency. Order them now, or send us a message today to inquire about purchasing to keep your community protected no matter the situation.
