diff --git a/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/testing/RemoteGcsHelper.java b/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/testing/RemoteGcsHelper.java
index 73bd66520182..024aa04eba1b 100644
--- a/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/testing/RemoteGcsHelper.java
+++ b/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/testing/RemoteGcsHelper.java
@@ -65,7 +65,10 @@ public StorageOptions options() {
 
   /**
    * Deletes a bucket, even if non-empty. Objects in the bucket are listed and deleted until bucket
-   * deletion succeeds or {@code timeout} expires.
+   * deletion succeeds or {@code timeout} expires. To allow for the timeout, this method uses a
+   * separate thread to send the delete requests. Use
+   * {@link #forceDelete(Storage storage, String bucket)} if spawning an additional thread is
+   * undesirable, such as in the App Engine production runtime.
    *
    * @param storage the storage service to be used to issue requests
    * @param bucket the bucket to be deleted
@@ -88,6 +91,17 @@ public static Boolean forceDelete(Storage storage, String bucket, long timeout,
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Deletes a bucket, even if non-empty. This method blocks until the deletion completes or fails.
+   *
+   * @param storage the storage service to be used to issue requests
+   * @param bucket the bucket to be deleted
+   * @throws StorageException if an exception is encountered during bucket deletion
+   */
+  public static void forceDelete(Storage storage, String bucket) {
+    new DeleteBucketTask(storage, bucket).call();
+  }
+
   /**
    * Returns a bucket name generated using a random UUID.
    */
@@ -157,7 +171,7 @@ public DeleteBucketTask(Storage storage, String bucket) {
     }
 
     @Override
-    public Boolean call() throws Exception {
+    public Boolean call() {
       while (true) {
         for (BlobInfo info : storage.list(bucket).values()) {
           storage.delete(bucket, info.name());
@@ -167,7 +181,12 @@ public Boolean call() throws Exception {
           return true;
         } catch (StorageException e) {
           if (e.code() == 409) {
-            Thread.sleep(500);
+            try {
+              Thread.sleep(500);
+            } catch (InterruptedException interruptedException) {
+              Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+              throw e;
+            }
           } else {
             throw e;
           }
diff --git a/gcloud-java-storage/src/test/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/RemoteGcsHelperTest.java b/gcloud-java-storage/src/test/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/RemoteGcsHelperTest.java
index 6b67a9576dc6..05b7f5f6fd8c 100644
--- a/gcloud-java-storage/src/test/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/RemoteGcsHelperTest.java
+++ b/gcloud-java-storage/src/test/java/com/google/gcloud/storage/RemoteGcsHelperTest.java
@@ -140,6 +140,36 @@ public void testForceDeleteFail() throws InterruptedException, ExecutionExceptio
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testForceDeleteNoTimeout() {
+    Storage storageMock = EasyMock.createMock(Storage.class);
+    EasyMock.expect(storageMock.list(BUCKET_NAME)).andReturn(BLOB_PAGE);
+    for (BlobInfo info : BLOB_LIST) {
+      EasyMock.expect(storageMock.delete(BUCKET_NAME, info.name())).andReturn(true);
+    }
+    EasyMock.expect(storageMock.delete(BUCKET_NAME)).andReturn(true);
+    EasyMock.replay(storageMock);
+    RemoteGcsHelper.forceDelete(storageMock, BUCKET_NAME);
+    EasyMock.verify(storageMock);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testForceDeleteNoTimeoutFail() {
+    Storage storageMock = EasyMock.createMock(Storage.class);
+    EasyMock.expect(storageMock.list(BUCKET_NAME)).andReturn(BLOB_PAGE);
+    for (BlobInfo info : BLOB_LIST) {
+      EasyMock.expect(storageMock.delete(BUCKET_NAME, info.name())).andReturn(true);
+    }
+    EasyMock.expect(storageMock.delete(BUCKET_NAME)).andThrow(FATAL_EXCEPTION);
+    EasyMock.replay(storageMock);
+    thrown.expect(StorageException.class);
+    try {
+      RemoteGcsHelper.forceDelete(storageMock, BUCKET_NAME);
+    } finally {
+      EasyMock.verify(storageMock);
+    }
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testCreateFromStream() {
     RemoteGcsHelper helper = RemoteGcsHelper.create(PROJECT_ID, JSON_KEY_STREAM);