Geri Spieler credits sandbags with helping protect her house from flooding damage during the storms that pounded Palo Alto earlier this month.

"The sandbags, I think, really saved us," Spieler said.

She's lived in the area for 30 years but had never seen rainwater rise like it did in the most recent round of severe weather during the first week of January.

"This year, for us living here, was worse than anything we had seen, ever," Spieler said.

But with the help of a pile of sandbags and a water pump, Spieler and her husband kept their Midtown home dry.

"It's really essential that the city have the sandbags when we have this kind of rain because otherwise we'd have terrible damage," she said.

As it was, weathering the storms was a lot of work: Spieler filled the heavy sandbags herself at the city's Mitchell Park pickup site, hauled them home and got up in the middle of the night to turn on the pump so that water levels stayed below the height of the sandbags.

Across the city, many Palo Altans were in the same situation — using sandbags to keep the rainwater at bay. Now, many residents are wondering what to do with their sandbags since the storms have passed.

The city's public works department recommends that residents keep their sandbags until the rainy season is over, in case there is more flooding.

Store sandbags in a dry place, the department recommends. If possible, keep them in the same spots where they were needed to block flooding, to avoid hauling them again if floodwaters return.

Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, Palo Alto's chief communications officer, said in an email that when sandbags are no longer needed, using the sand for landscaping or garden projects is a perfect way to reuse them.

The Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association recommends making a simple soil mix of 60-70% sand and 30-40% compost for use in planters and gardens. Residents can pick up free compost to mix with their sand at the Eleanor Pardee Community Garden.

Horrigan-Taylor emphasized that residents should avoid using sand from wet, and possibly contaminated, sandbags in their planters and gardens.

"Sandbags that have been in contact with flood water should not be reused in a yard since the flood water may contain bacteria or animal waste," she said.

Damp sandbags are also at risk of developing mold.

The bags themselves are not recyclable, she said. If not used by residents, the sand can be repurposed in material recovery facilities and mixed with concrete.

Residents can dispose up to two sandbags each week in their curbside garbage bins.

For more information and updates about storms and the city of Palo Alto's public works department, go the city's website at cityofpaloalto.org.