Patent Publication Number: US-7712998-B2

Title: Flood wall

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Flash floods are common in low lying areas and along waterfronts when heavy rains, hurricanes or the like occur. In order to protect structures from flooding, it is common to build a wall from sandbags or the like to prevent the floodwaters from entering a building. Unfortunately, it is rather time consuming, expensive, and labor intensive to construct a flood wall from sand bags as well as to remove the wall when the flood waters subside. If not properly constructed, the wall will break and flooding will occur. Moreover, the entire process must be repeated the next time flooding is forecast. 
   BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
   Inflatable barrier walls are well-known in the patented prior art as evidenced by the U.S. patents to Strong U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,577 and Obermeyer U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,360. For example, Strong discloses a flood wall having upper an lower chambers. The upper chamber is inflatable to act as a float. As water fills the lower chamber, the inflatable chamber causes the wall to rise to form a barrier. Obermeyer discloses a gate operating system including bladders which are pressurized by air to raise and lower a protective panel or barrier. 
   While the prior devices operate satisfactorily, they are cumbersome to handle and store, expensive, and overly complex for operation by an unskilled person. The present invention was developed in order to overcome these and other drawbacks of the prior devices by providing an inexpensive portable inflatable flood wall which may be erected quickly by a single individual in a desired location to protect a building or other structure from rising flood waters. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The portable flood wall according to the invention includes a generally rectangular sheet of flexible synthetic plastic material which is folded about spaced parallel fold lines to define bottom, rear and front portions. The front portion extends from the rear portion and is connected with an intermediate portion of the bottom portion to define a chamber. At least one bladder is arranged in the chamber and connected with the rear portion. The bladder preferably extends longitudinally generally along the width of the rear portion in parallel with the fold lines and is inflatable by a pump. A valve is connected with the bladder to retain air therein or release air therefrom. When the bladder is inflated, the rear portion of the sheet is erected to a vertical condition and the front portion tapers downwardly from the top of the rear portion to the bottom portion. The front portion contains a plurality of openings for receiving water as the water rises, with the bladder and rear portion serving to retain the water. 
   The weight of the water on the bottom portion of the sheet serves to retain the wall in place. Before flooding occurs, it is desirable to secure the sheet in place. Thus, a plurality of spaced openings are preferably provided in the bottom portion adjacent to the leading edge of the sheet. A plurality of stakes are driven through the openings into the ground to hold the sheet in place. In addition, a rear flap is provided extending from the junction of the bottom and rear portions which may also contain openings for receiving stakes to hold the rear of the wall in place. In lieu of stakes, sand bags may be placed on the rear flap and the leading edge of the bottom portion to hold the wall in place. 
   According to another feature of the invention, the flood wall includes connection devices at either end which are used to interconnect a plurality of walls in end-to-end relation to form a wall of a desired length. The connection devices comprises a plurality of spaced loops extending from the side edges of the rear portion of the sheet. The loops of adjacent walls are interleaved with a rod or other member being passed through the loops to join the sections together in a hinge-like manner. Preferably, sealing flaps extend from the rear wall edges in front of the loops to prevent water from passing between the adjacent wall sections. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
     Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a study of the following specification when viewed in the light of the accompanying drawing, in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the flood wall of the invention in its inflated operable condition; 
       FIGS. 2A and 2B  are top views of alternate embodiments, respectively, of the flood wall of  FIG. 1 ; and 
       FIG. 3  is a detailed rear view of adjoining flood wall sections showing the mechanism for interconnecting the sections. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   Referring to  FIG. 1 , there is shown the preferred configuration of a portable flood wall  2  according to the invention. The wall is formed from a sheet  4  of flexible material such as synthetic plastic. The preferred material has a thickness of 20 mm and is similar to that used for the mattress of a waterbed. The sheet preferably is rectangular in shape and has a pair of parallel fold lines  6  and  8  which divide the sheet into bottom  10 , rear  12  and front  14  portions. The forward edge of the front portion is connected with an intermediate portion of the bottom portion such as by an adhesive, heat weld, or other known technique for joining synthetic plastic material. Once joined, the front, rear and bottom portions define a chamber  16  which is open at either end. 
   Within the chamber is arranged an elongated bladder  18  which extends in a direction parallel to the fold lines. Preferably, a second bladder  20  is also arranged within the chamber parallel to the first bladder. The bladders are connected with the rear wall in a stacked relation as shown in  FIG. 1 . The connection is also via an adhesive, heat weld or the like. The bladders  18 ,  20  are connected with a pump  22  via valves  22 ,  24 , respectively. In a normal condition, the bladders are not inflated and the front and rear portions are folded against the bottom portion of the sheet. The sheet may be rolled up or folded into a compact position for storage. When it is desired to erect the wall, it is unfolded and positioned in a desired location in front of a building or other structure to be protected from advancing flood waters. The bladders are inflated by activation of the pump. As the bladders fill with air, the rear wall rises to a vertical position as shown in  FIG. 1 . The valves serve to control the delivery of air to and from the bladders. 
   The pump can be an air compressor or a manual bicycle pump, or any other device for delivering air to the bladders. It will be appreciated that the arrangement and number of bladders on the rear portion of the sheet is such that when the bladders are inflated, they abut one another and extend continuously from the bottom to the top of the rear portion. The height of the rear portion is determined by the spacing between the fold lines  6 ,  8  and the number and size of bladders. The wall can be constructed in different heights and widths depending on the environment in which the wall is to be used. 
   With the wall positioned as desired and with the bladders inflated, flood water will pass over the bottom portion  10  of the sheet  4  and rise up the front portion  14 . The front portion preferably contains a plurality of openings  28  which allow water to pass into the chamber  16  and abut against the bladders  18  and  20  as well as the rear portion  12 . The weight of the water serves to retain the wall in position. 
   Under windy conditions, such as when a hurricane is approaching, it is desirable to retain the wall in position before the water level rises to flood stage. Accordingly, the bottom portion is provided with a plurality of spaced, parallel openings  30  which extend adjacent to the leading edge of the sheet bottom portion. A plurality of stakes  32  may be driven through the openings, respectively, into the ground surface on which the sheet has been arranged to hold the sheet in place. In addition, a rear flap  34  may be provided which extends from the fold line between the bottom and rear portions of the sheet. The flap also contains openings  36  for receiving stakes  32  to hold the rear of the wall in place. The rear flap with openings therein is also shown in the top view of  FIG. 2A . An alternate arrangement for holding the wall in place before the flood waters begin to cover the wall bottom portion is shown in  FIG. 2B . In lieu of the stakes and openings in the sheet, sandbags  38  may be placed on the wall bottom portion  10  and on the rear flap  34 . 
   The wall shown in  FIG. 1  can be made to any suitable dimension. However, if the wall is made too long, it becomes unwieldy to handle, even in its deflated condition. Thus, it is desirable to construct the wall with an inflated height of generally three feet and a length of ten feet. Where it is necessary to protect a structure wider than ten feet, a plurality of wall sections may be joined together in end-to-end fashion. In order to do so, the wall sections are provided with connection devices at either end which will be described with reference to  FIG. 3 . A first wall section  102  is shown connected with a second wall section  202 . The section  102  has a plurality of vertically spaced loops  140  extending from a side edge of the rear portion of the wall sheet. The pair of bladders  118 ,  120  connected with the front surface of the rear wall portion are shown in phantom. The section  202  also has bladders  218  and  220  (shown in phantom) connected with the front surface of the rear wall portion. Extending from the side edge of the rear portion are a plurality of spaced loops  240 . The loops  140  from the wall section  102  and the loops  240  from the wall section  202  are interleaved in a hinge-like fashion and a rod  50  or other member passes through the interleaved loops to join the wall sections together. The rod may be formed as a flexible fiberglass member. Alternatively, a rope or other device may be threaded through the loops to join them together in a known manner. 
   In order to prevent water from seeping through the area between the joined wall sections, the wall section  102  includes a sealing flap  142  which extends from the edge of the rear portion in front of the loops. If desired, the wall section  202  also includes a sealing flap  242  which extends from the edge of the rear portion in front of the loops  240  in overlapping relation with the flap  142 . The pressure of the flood water holds the flaps against the loops in a generally watertight condition. 
   While the preferred forms and embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modification may be made without deviating from the inventive concepts set forth above.