People getting free sandbags on same day flood warning issued say they are making, adjusting plans

Jenny Farley was filling sandbags Saturday morning to protect her home against an eventual flood when she learned a warning has been issued due to flooding from Suicide Basin that is expected to peak early Monday morning. She said the forecasted Mendenhall River crest of 11.5 feet isn’t a likely threat to her house, but she’s changing her plans regardless.

“That won’t affect our house, it doesn’t affect our backyard, but it will affect probably our neighbor and they’re out of town,” she said. “So we will probably instead of using the sandbags for our house, we’ll probably give them to them.”

Farley and her husband James were among the many residents in areas affected by the record Aug. 6 Suicide Basin flood who were picking up some of the 75,000 sandbags being distributed free by the city at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. The couple took the maximum of 200 bags allowed per household and were filling them with sand from a large pile at Melvin Park, one of two spots along with the Thunder Mountain Middle School parking lot where sand was provided.

Pickup of sandbags was sporadic during the day, but the pace of people arriving was brisk after the flood warning was issued, said Jesse Roselle, a parks and recreational employee for the city. He said the total number of sandbags provided was unknown since it turned out the number per bundle varied rather than being exactly 50 each — with some containing as many as 80 — but nine pallets each containing about 24 bundles were distributed by about 3:30 p.m.

A river level peaking at 11 to 11.5 feet — the forecast by the National Weather Service Juneau as of midday Saturday — is far below the 15.99 feet on Aug. 6 that damaged nearly 300 homes. Areas most likely to be affected by the current flood are View Drive — where minor flooding will start at about 9.5 feet and the access road impassible at 11 feet — and homes along the river on Meander Way when the river reaches 11 feet.

Among the first to pick up sandbags Saturday morning was Adam Zaleski and three members of his family, who took the bags over to the school’s parking lot a short distance away to fill them. He said they obtained about 50 sandbags on their own before the free distribution and have a plan in place if it appears their home will be threatened.

“We’ve got them on pallets in the back right now and we’ve kind of come up with a written plan of where we’re going to strategically deploy them if we need to,” he said, adding the family checks the NWS Juneau’s Suicide Basin monitoring website daily.

Advice to the family was offered by Noah Teshner, a resident in the flood-affected area who purchased 10,000 sandbags with his own money after the Aug. 6 flood and has been selling them to others in recent weeks as part of an effort by community groups to take protective action.

“I would recommend lifting the bag up, and set it on the back of the tailgate and tie there,” he told the family as they loaded bags into their truck. “Because then you’re standing upright, you’re not hunched over kneeling and it’s way less fatigue on yourself. You guys are filling them about just right where they’re two-thirds full, which looks great.”

Teshner, offering loading as well as verbal assistance to others in the parking lot, said in an interview the arrival of the first snowstorm and sub-freezing temperatures at the same time the sandbags are being distributed presents some challenges. Freezing temperatures, for example, will cause the sand to gradually harden to the point people won’t be able to shovel it into bags.

Also, the moisture saturating the sand from the rain and snow the past couple of days means deploying them for protection now isn’t advisable unless necessary, Teshner said.

“I would highly recommend stacking them as if you were stacking them on a pallet — if you got a pallet, put them on a pallet,” he said. “And the reason I recommend that is because when they’re stacked high the pressure tends to squeeze the water out of them and so they can drain out. And if you cover them with plastic or a tarp you’re going to be more able to move them later on. Because if you stack them up, and they get all soaked and they freeze together, what good are they?”

The free sandbags are being distributed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Tuesday. While each household is limited to 200 sandbags, people are allowed to pick them up on behalf of others, which is what Weston Holland was doing when he collected 600 bags for himself and two other addresses on Emily Way.

“I’m filling them with sand to get those ready,” he said. “I’m also going to get some rubber roofing — it comes in 100-foot rolls — and hopefully I can go around the house and stack the sandbags against it to help waterproof it.”

While Saturday’s flood warning added urgency to people in areas likely to be flooded if the Mendenhall River approaches the peak forecast level, it may lessen a concern Holland and others expressed — just before the alert was issued — about the late-season buildup of water just before freezing temperatures set in.

“That makes it more scary for the springtime because it’s because it’s not going to be empty,” Holland said, referring to a scenario where a late-season flood doesn’t occur. “So come springtime all that water is going to still sit in there, right? And then we’re going to have an earlier release than normal.”

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.