After an ice dam at the adjacent Mendenhall Glacier discharged a huge amount of precipitation and snow melted downstream, officials said Wednesday that new sandbag-style barriers placed along a river in Alaska’s capital city averted widespread damage and pushed back record amounts of flooding.
Earlier in the day, the Mendenhall River crested in Juneau, causing water to pool in a number of streets, yards, and residences. Although many homeowners evacuated before peak flood levels, authorities returned the impacted neighborhoods to residents by late afternoon as the water subsided. Unlike the previous two years, when flooding was common and some homes were washed away, there were no complaints of damage.
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Some homes in the flood zone have objected to the barriers’ expense and suggested that officials look for a longer-term solution. However, Juneau City Manager Katie Koester stated at a press conference that they “really have protected our community.”
“We would have hundreds and hundreds of flooded homes if it weren’t for them,” she claimed.
The 30,000-person city of Juneau, in southeast Alaska, is only 12 miles (19 kilometers) away from the Mendenhall Glacier, which is a well-liked tourist destination because of its close proximity and convenient walking pathways. Many of the homes on the fringes of the city face the Mendenhall River, which the glacial outburst flowed into, and are within miles of Mendenhall Lake, which is located beneath the glacier.
Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, is located 570 miles (917 kilometers) southeast of Juneau, which is only reachable by boat and airplane. The summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump in Anchorage on Friday will not be affected by the flooding.
Every year, basin flooding is a concern.
Since 2011, flooding from the basin has become a yearly problem, and in recent years, it has gotten worse. It occurs as a result of a smaller glacier near Mendenhall Glacier retreating due to global warming, leaving behind a basin that fills with precipitation and snowmelt every spring and summer.
The water pushes through the ice dam or around it, reaches Mendenhall Lake, and then runs down the Mendenhall River when the pressure is high enough.
In 2023 and 2024, the city saw consecutive years of record flooding, with the flooding spreading further into the Mendenhall Valley.
Nearly 300 homes suffered damage last year.
The University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center estimates that a massive eruption might spill up to 15 billion gallons of water. That is the same as about 23,000 Olympic-sized pools. According to the experts, the Mendenhall River’s flow rate was around half that of Niagara Falls during the flood last year.
There are barriers in place.
In an effort to prevent extensive flooding, city officials installed a temporary levee along around 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of riverbank this year in response to property owners’ worries. They did this in collaboration with state, federal, and tribal entities. According to emergency manager Ryan O. Shaughnessy, the 10,000 Hesco barriers are essentially enormous, reinforced sandbags designed to safeguard over 460 properties.
Homeowners in flood zones were forced by the Juneau Assembly to pay 40% of the total cost, or around $6,300 per year, over a ten-year period. A few residents were also required to contribute $50,000 to the river bank’s reinforcement. Only around 25% of the locals formally complained, which was insufficient to ruin the project.
Two homeowners filed a lawsuit, alleging that the government had taken their land without paying them to put up the barriers.
Water leaked into yards on Tuesday and Wednesday through drains that were placed beneath the barricades. According to officials, trees that were floating down the river hit and damaged the barriers in other places.
Water flowed through tiny culverts beneath the barrier in her backyard and reached knee-deep in the crawl area of her house, according to Ann Wilkinson Lind, who lives on the banks of the Mendenhall River. After mechanisms meant to prevent floods were installed, she added, the damage was unsettling even though it wasn’t disastrous.
According to her, I was sure that the barriers had a chance. I was completely taken aback and overwhelmed by the culverts, something I had never, ever considered.
Beginning today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will likely spend years researching the area’s conditions and considering alternatives for a longer-term fix, such a levee. Some locals are upset by the timeline, claiming it is irrational.
Researchers from the university and science center predict that outburst floods will persist for another 25 to 60 years, or as long as the Mendenhall Glacier functions as an ice dam to block off the basin.
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This report was written by Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Becky Bohrer in Juneau for the Associated Press.
