Protecting your own house this winter

The campaign on this site is for a repaired wall. This page is for the meantime. Everything here is what the County and the National Flood Insurance Program tell homeowners to do, gathered in one place so you are not hunting across five websites in the dark with rain coming.

1. Sandbags — where they are, before you need them

Marin County keeps about 30 free self-serve sandbag locations. The ones nearest Santa Venetia:

• Civic Center — 2 Peter Behr Drive, San Rafael
• Terra Linda Community Center — 670 Del Ganado Road, San Rafael
• Menzies Parking Lot — 1428 Mission Avenue, San Rafael
• Boro Community Center parking lot — 50 Canal Street, San Rafael
• Peacock Gap Park — 599 Biscayne Drive, San Rafael

Three things the County says plainly and that are worth knowing before the first storm: bring your own shovel, some locations limit how many bags per household, and they recommend you buy your own bags from a local retailer in advance rather than counting on supply the night of. The County's live map of all locations is here.

Filled bags are heavy — about 35 to 40 pounds each. If you are going to need a row of them, that is a job to do in daylight, before the forecast, with someone helping.

2. Emergency alerts — you are not signed up automatically

Alert Marin is the County's emergency notification system, and registration is what puts your mobile number on it. A landline in the phone book may be reached without registering; your cell phone will not be. If you want a warning about an evacuation or a tide event to reach the phone in your pocket, you have to enter it yourself, once.

Sign up for Alert Marin →

3. Flood insurance — the part people find out too late

A standard homeowners policy does not cover flood damage. Flood coverage is a separate policy, generally through the National Flood Insurance Program, and an NFIP policy usually does not take effect for 30 days. That is the sentence that matters: you cannot buy flood insurance when the storm is in the forecast. It has to be in place before the season.

Coverage is available to properties outside mapped flood zones as well as inside them, and building coverage and contents coverage are bought separately — a policy on the structure does not cover what is in it. The County is not involved in administering flood insurance; policies come through insurance agents.

• General information and how to find a policy: FloodSmart.gov
• Whether your parcel is in a Special Flood Hazard Area: Marin County Land Development, (415) 473-3755, Room 308 at the Civic Center
• County page on FEMA maps and the NFIP: Marin County Public Works

4. Before the rain starts

The County's own line on this is blunt: "When you hear that there is a 'Flood Watch' or a 'Flood Warning,' it's already too late to begin preparing." The work is done in the dry months.

• Clear your gutters, downspouts and the drains around your house, and keep the street drain nearest you clear of leaves.
• Know where your water, gas and electrical shutoffs are, and that you can reach them in the dark.
• Get anything you would hate to lose off the floor of the garage and out of the crawl space.
• Photograph the inside and outside of your house now, while it is dry. Insurance claims go faster with before-pictures.
• Keep a few bags, a tarp and a working flashlight where you can find them without going outside first.

The items above are ordinary preparation, not County instructions. County winterizing guidance is at Flood Preparedness, and ReadyMarin runs free preparedness training.

5. During and after a flood

• Do not drive or walk through moving water. It is the way most people get hurt in a flood, and a foot of it moves a car.
• Photograph and video the damage before you clean anything up, including the high-water line on the walls.
• Keep receipts for anything you spend on emergency repairs, drying or lodging.
• Report levee, creek or storm drain problems to the Flood Control District at (415) 473-6530 — and tell the email list, so the neighborhood has its own record of what failed and where.

What the County has said about sandbags for this neighborhood

Worth knowing, because it is the reason this site exists. In March 2026 the Flood Zone 7 Advisory Board identified 49 parcels as critical, funded five repair sites for 2026 at roughly $573,000, and left sandbags as the answer for the rest of the alignment. In July 2026 the Advisory Board's written update described further repairs as "anticipated," with disaster reimbursement "still far off."

Sandbags are what the County has offered for the stretch of wall in front of most of these houses. That is a reasonable emergency measure and an unreasonable five-year plan. The ask →

Where this came from

• Marin County Office of Emergency Management — emergency sandbag locations
• Alert Marin registration
• Marin County Flood Control District — flood preparedness
• Marin County Public Works — FEMA flood maps and the NFIP
• Flood Zone 7 Advisory Board staff report, March 25, 2026, and written update, July 22, 2026 — see Key Facts & Documents

This page is neighbor-to-neighbor information, not insurance, legal or emergency-management advice. Program details and locations change; the links above are the County's own pages and are the authority.