Flood Trapper

Everett “Buzz” Waid couldn't have timed the weather better.

When massive floods inundated the Midwest this spring and summer, Waid was ready with an invention called the TrapBag.

These barriers are giant sandbags six feet tall hung on a rail system that a front loader can fill with sand or gravel. The advantage is that a crew of four can install up to a mile of TrapBag flood barriers in 24 hours, faster than any volunteer effort with ordinary sandbags.

“The final total was 27 miles installed around the country,” says Waid, a Fort Myers Beach entrepreneur. “We ended up putting in 11 miles to keep the interstates open in Iowa.”

The outlook calls for more floods in the Midwest. “We're probably going to sell a lot more product this year,” says Waid. “Right now, they're looking at flooding on the Mississippi.”

Waid's company, Sentinel Barriers, hit $6 million in sales this year. “We may be able to double that” in 2012, he says. “We'll have international sales by then.”

TrapBag equipment can easily be airlifted to foreign countries using FedEx. “We're looking at Australia and South Africa right now,” Waid says. “We were going to deploy in Thailand, and they opted not to do anything.” (Floods in Thailand disrupted manufacturing, particularly components for cars and electronic equipment.) Waid also plans to travel to Manitoba in Canada shortly, which is also expected to endure flooding problems in 2012.

Meanwhile, to get more clients in the U.S., Waid is in the process of getting TrapBag tested by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a sort of seal of approval. Although the testing could cost Sentinel Barriers as much as $100,000, the payoff could be significant. “In the long run it's a no-brainer, so we're going to go through that process the first of the year before flood season,” Waid says, noting that the corps has already used TrapBag in the field this year without experiencing any breaches.

Waid's good fortune is remarkable, especially considering that he had to shut down his construction company during the real estate bust. That company, Hydro Rock, hit $50 million in revenues with 250 employees in 2006.

Waid had tinkered with the TrapBag idea years earlier, but launched it after the construction industry collapsed. He teamed with industrial-bag manufacturer Ameriglobe of Lafayette, La. “We think it should be a tremendous year,” he says.