Annapolis Buys Novel Water Wall For Floods

Rubber Tubes Designed To Replace Sandbags

Emergency officials in Annapolis test a rubber flood-protection system developed in Europe, which could save Market House from rising waters. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)

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By William Wan and Raymond R. McCaffrey

Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 22, 2007; Page HO03

City workers gathered Monday around the Market House and watched as water from a fire hydrant filled the large rubber tubes which will be used instead of sandbags to protect the historic building against flooding.

Annapolis is the first U.S. city to buy the equipment, which was designed by the Czech Republic manufacturer Rubena and is used in Europe, according to the company's American distributor, FloodWalls.

"It's faster, more effective and takes less people" than traditional flood-fighting methods, said Allen James, an executive for FloodWalls.

The city-owned Market House has experienced serious flooding, particularly during Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003. The storm sent more than two feet of water into the building, which housed a number of food vendors. Rising waters ruined most of their equipment and the 19th-century building's electrical system.

The flood damage and other factors prompted the city to close the Market House for two years for renovations. It reopened last year, and city officials want to avoid such damage again.

"People are asking us to do something," city spokesman Ray Weaver said. "There's only so much we can take on as a municipality. We can't move the docks."

The city bought 34 sections of rubber walls in August for about $70,000 and received them last month. During a demonstration Monday, the Annapolis Fire Department filled the anti-flood tubes, which are 18 feet long and about 3.5 feet tall, to form a wall around the Market House. Experts from FloodWalls helped coordinate the test and conducted a training session on how to open valves on the tubes and hook them up.

The flood barriers are part of a $9 million project to renovate City Dock. Funded by the city, state and federal governments, the renovation also will provide a new boardwalk, piers and 97 steel pilings at City Dock.

Unlike sandbags, the barriers can be reused for as many as 20 years.

"They're environmentally sound," Weaver said. "You fill them up with water and then you drain them."