Record flooding exceeding the “worst-case” scenario of forecasters swamped dozens of homes and streets in the vicinity of the Mendenhall River in a glacial outburst flood from Suicide Basin that peaked at about 3:15 a.m. Tuesday, according to officials.
The Mendenhall River crested at 15.99 feet, exceeding last year’s previous high by more than a foot, according to the National Weather Service Juneau. The higher level of flooding resulted in evacuations and damage to many areas not touched by last year’s flood, although no deaths or major injuries were reported as the water began receding.
“I’m not aware of any homes that were partially or completely washed away,” Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said at about 6 a.m. Tuesday. “I do know, though, that there are a significant number of homes — I don’t have a number yet — that experienced major flooding.”
A declaration of emergency was expected to be passed by the Juneau Assembly at a special meeting at noon Tuesday, a precursor to seeking state and federal disaster relief.
An emergency shelter set up by the city at Floyd Dryden Middle School that was empty at 1:30 a.m. had about 30 people arrive within a couple of hours, many of whom had quickly fled their homes when water suddenly and unexpectedly began flooding in.
Water spills into homes and streets in the Mendenhall Valley following record flooding from the Mendenhall River on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Rich Ross)
There were some emergency calls to the Juneau Police Department and Capital City Fire/Rescue from people who were seeking to be evacuated from homes they were trapped in by the flooding, Barr said.
“Those were successful for the people we were able to reach,” he said. “There were some people we were not able to reach who sheltered in place. And I’m not aware that there were any injuries or casualties associated with any of that.”
The water level of the Mendenhall River had dropped to 11.15 feet by 9 a.m. Tuesday and was expected to continue dropping rapidly throughout the day, according to the National Weather Service Juneau’s monitoring website for Suicide Basin.
The flooding was caused by the break of an ice dam at Suicide Basin — a process known as a jökulhlaup that’s occurred annually since 2011 — at about 10:11 a.m. Sunday. A “worst-case” river level of about 15 feet by early Tuesday morning was initially forecast by the weather service, which was revised upward Monday afternoon to a 15.7-foot crest at 1 a.m. and then early Tuesday morning to a 16.3-foot crest at about 4 a.m.
Last year the river crested at 14.97 feet on Aug. 6, 2023, which far exceeded the previous record of 11.99 feet in 2016. Major damage to homes and infrastructure from last year’s flood resulted in large-scale efforts to line the banks of the river with rock fill to prevent erosion and new equipment was installed increasing monitoring of the basin.
The changes in the forecast of the “worst-case scenario” are due to factors that can’t be predicted precisely, Andrew Park, a meteorologist with NWSJ, said in an interview early Tuesday morning.
“We have a good idea of how much water is in the basin,” he said. “We have a good idea of how the river responds to that water. The biggest unknown is how efficient is that release.”
“If you have a bathtub in your house full of water and you pop a pinhole, you have time to respond,” Park said. “But if you just dump the whole bathtub of water into your home, that’s a big problem. You don’t have time to respond to that. The river is like that — where you take all that water in the basin, you dump it in at once, the water has nowhere to go and you’ve exceeded the capacity of that system for output.”
Park said Suicide Basin has dropped over 300 feet since the release began Sunday.
Safeguards protect some areas hit hard last year
While the Mendenhall River rose steadily Sunday and Monday, it took until about noon Monday to pass the “moderate flood” level of 1o feet and reached the “major flood” stage of 14 feet at about 9 p.m., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Prediction Service website.
Residents of homes and condominiums along Riverside Drive that were severely damaged by last year’s flooding gathered on Monday evening along reinforced riverbanks, watching the river pass by without feeling any impending threat. There appeared to be no sign the reinforced bank was suffering the erosion responsible for much of last year’s damage.
Vehicles try to navigate through rapidly rising flood waters in a neighborhood along the Mendenhall River at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Dirk Ljungberg, a resident on River Road along the other side of the river, was on his porch surveying the river level with his Newfoundland dog Echo at about 9 p.m. Monday. He wasn’t living along the river last year. He moved from Mendenhall Valley knowing the risks.
“It’s one of the things that you accept the river,” he said. “It’s going to do what it needs to do, but we’re grateful to be part of it. Just a beautiful place to live. Understand that there’s certain risks involved, but it’s all a part of where you choose to live and accepting what nature does.”
He had his dogs and family ready to hop in his truck by nightfall, and said they would consider camping or staying at the overnight shelter in Floyd Dryden Middle School.
“The big concern, obviously, is when nightfall hits, you can’t see it,” he said while the sun set behind him over the Mendenhall Glacier.
“We’re just waiting to see,” Ljungberg said. “We have our truck packed. We’re probably gonna get out of here just overnight. Not super worried about water, anything like that. But obviously, the concern about the bank. But with the rip rap installment and things like that, we feel pretty good about where we’re at.”
Adam Bishop, another River Road resident, shared a similar sentiment. He said he is confident in the reinforcement along the riverbank. He lived along the Mendenhall River last year during the record flooding on Aug. 5, 2023.
“It was terrible,” he said. “My mom — she was here alone, and I was off in college, and basically it undercut our house. And so our house was about to collapse, and so I booked the flight to come help her out, and we moved everything out of this house and all the community was amazing. Like, we had 20 people show up and basically an assembly line just to get the stuff out of the house.”
He said it was a traumatic event and it was frustrating because they couldn’t receive flood insurance. Bishop said regular insurance couldn’t cover their losses and FEMA didn’t either.
“A lot of our stuff was damaged, but in less of a materialistic way, I would say,” Bishop said. “Like we just lost our entire lawn. Like we had a giant lawn and beautiful trees, and all of the landscaping that we’d spent pretty much our whole lives doing. My father built this house, actually. And so it was just really painful to watch all that nature go and just the memories we got attached with our lawn.”
Homes and condominiums along Riverside Drive that suffered major damage during last year’s flooding of the Mendenhall River remain high above the water level and well protected by a rock-reinforced riverbank as the river nears its expected crest Monday night. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Tom Mattice, emergency programs manager for the City and Borough of Juneau, looked over the edge of the Mendenhall River bridge on Back Loop at approximately 10 p.m. The ice-cold mist could be felt wisping up from the river full from the glacial outburst of Suicide Basin.
“Making sure that everybody’s being as safe as they can,” Mattice said. “We’re fortunate that the river is carrying the water well this year. The banks seem to be stable so far. Obviously, it was at the top of the flood where we saw the biggest concern last year, and we’re at the top of the flood now for the next couple hours. So we’ve got our fingers crossed and we hope that everything will go as planned.”
From bad to worse after 1 a.m.
However, for many residents hoping the worst would end with a 1 a.m. crest, it was instead only the beginning.
John Lohrey said his family was sleeping at their home on Emily Way when they were awakened at about 1:15 a.m. by the sound of water flowing.
He said they didn’t take precautions against flooding because the home was “totally dry” during last year’s flood. But within 20 minutes of noticing water leaking through the back door the rising water tore a door open to the basement, and a river of water swept up family belongings there including his mother’s piano and wedding dress.
His daughter, Emilyanne, said she’s long been collecting family heirlooms and genealogy records that were kept in the basement — although with more modern records and documents by current family members on computer equipment.
“I had three old-fashioned suitcase trunks from my great aunt that had pictures and memorabilia in it,” she said. “And had I an old cedar chest with blankets and other things that were my grandmother’s and my mom’s.”
They and two other members of the family were the first to show up at the city’s shelter at Floyd Dryden Middle School. A few minutes later another family group included kids wrapped in towels accompanied by an adult who told shelter officials they swam out of their house.
The water level rises rapidly on Meander Way at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, about 15 minutes after power was cut off to the neighborhood. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Many others stayed at their homes and kept fighting the rising waters.
Vladimir Cruz and Morgan Cruz were putting up sandbags and tarps around their house at 1 a.m. Tuesday on Meander Way. They said last year the water came halfway up their driveway.
Morgan Cruz said bulletins about the flooding situation provided by the city were helpful this year. She said after talking with neighbors they didn’t feel the need to evacuate.
Last year the inside of their home didn’t sustain damage, but a tree that fell along the river went through their back fence.
As of 1 a.m. this year they had managed to avoid that issue, but a tree took out part of their neighbors’ back fence.
“What happened is there’s some big trees that are floating downstream and normally they kind of make that curve,” Bob Atadero said. “But of course, one didn’t. It had nowhere else to go but straight through our fence. We were able to retrieve all the fence parts.”
The water rushing down Meander Way began past Northland Street and flooded quickly through the storm drains to the surrounding neighborhoods. At 1 a.m. someone could walk across the street, but at approximately 1:45 a.m. the water was knee-high and still rising quickly.
Power was cut to Meander Way and the street was closed early Tuesday morning. CCFR posted an update on its Facebook page at 2:35 a.m. to avoid flood areas, stating water by then was flowing up to three feet deep on side streets with wood and logs in it.
“Even pickup trucks are in danger of stalling out,” CCFR wrote.
After last year’s flood, Atadero said they had to rip out their downstairs flooring and three to four inches of baseboard. Heaters and a bed had to be replaced. They said the updates from NWSJ, CCFR and the city made them feel more prepared this time around.
“We learned from last year because these storm drains flooded and because the river water went up the storm drain and flooded the streets it crept into our garage,” Atadero said. “We had about two to three inches inside the house last year.”
He said this year they bought material that operates like a sandbag. It inflates when water is added and becomes very thick. He and his wife Adrienne were padding it against their garage and inside door as their driveway deepened with water.
But about an hour after putting up safeguards for the garage and door, water began to seep into the inside of the Ataderos’ home.
Atadero said after last year’s flood the river became wider and noisier.
“We used to be able to hear the birds,” he said as he watched a large tree crash down the riverbank across from his backyard.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356. Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
