SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The sand Woody Smith is shoveling into a sandbag, he said, could mean the difference between staying dry and thousands of dollars of water damage to his home.

“I’ve got some low points near the house so I’ll put these bags out to prevent water from coming in my garage and in the house,” he said.

Smith has lived in Elk Grove in Sacramento County for 48 years and said he still has sandbags in place from January’s storm, which weren’t able to stop the water completely.

“We had a little bit that went through the garage,” he said. “And so I came and got some then [sandbags] and put those out. So I’m going to add these [sandbags] to that today.”

The National Weather Service is estimating between two and three inches of rain for the area between Thursday and Sunday, and warning people about the potential for flooding not only from the rain but the snow melt as well.

Behind the sandbagging area, Sean Gallagher and the Elk Grove Department of Public Works team say officials there are ready to respond where necessary to any flooding. He says the respite in weather from January until now has helped.

“Coming up for these recent storms, we’ve had about a month of not too bad a weather, so we’ve done a lot of additional clean-ups,” said Gallagher, deputy director of the Department of Public Works Elk Grove. “And we feel pretty confident going into this next round of storms.”

To go along with the rain, the National Weather Service says to watch for wind gusts up to 45 mph, something Smith said is also firmly on his mind.

“With this last wind and rain, you know, I had several big trees that fell down and I had to cut up, and I’m still in the process of doing that,” he said.

Smith noted that he and his wife were without power for 24 hours in January. He hopes the wood he’s chopped, the generator he bought and the sand he bags will mean a better experience this time around. But he said only time will tell.