Juneau awoke to snow on the ground and a flood warning from the National Weather Service on Saturday, telling residents still recovering from August’s glacial outburst flood that another was on the way.
On Sunday, as the fresh snow on the mountains glistened against the bright blue sky, Matt Dusenberry soaked up the Vitamin D – just not in the way he wanted to.
He was shoveling sand into bags at the city’s sandbag distribution center at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library.
Experts had predicted another release this fall from Suicide Basin, a glacial lake that dams meltwater and rainwater behind a spur of the Mendenhall Glacier. It drains periodically.
Dusenberry’s home is on Sharon Street. During the August flood, about a foot of water filled the bottom floor. He said this time around he was not taking any chances.
“It’s Mother Nature. We don’t get to just decide how it’s going to work,” he said. “So I guess hopefully we’re a little bit more ready for it if by chance it goes sideways on us tonight.”
During the August flood, the river crested at almost 16 feet and flood waters damaged nearly 300 homes. Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for it. This time around, the river is expected to crest between 11 to 11.5 feet early Monday morning.
“This one is definitely going to be different because of the late season and the fact that we’ve got snow on the ground — certainly not expecting major flooding like we saw in August,” said Nicole Ferrin, the warning coordination meteorologist with NWS Juneau Saturday morning.
According to Ferrin, at the predicted moderate flood stage, low-lying areas are anticipated to flood. There could be more than a foot of water on Skater’s Cabin Road and West Glacier trail, and up to three feet of water in parts of the Mendenhall Campground.
At Melvin Park, City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Programs Manager Tom Mattice was using a tractor to help people dump sand into bags. He’d been out there all weekend helping to distribute the bags to residents of neighborhoods that saw flooding in August.
“Even though this isn’t as big as this August and last August, these are still big flood events,” he said.
At the predicted crest early Monday morning, some parts of View Drive could also start to flood and homeowners along Meander Way may see water seeping into their backyards. But most homes in the Mendenhall Valley should be spared from flooding.
Back at the library, Maureen Lare and Daniel Michrowski pull up their truck to fill sandbags too. They bought their house on Meander Way about a year and a half ago.
“We were specifically told we were not in a flood zone and we had anything to worry about, and we were going to be fine — and that turned out not to be true,” Michrowski said.
Their crawl space, laundry room and garage flooded this August. They’re filling up sand now to seal up the places where water seeped last flood. Despite the previous damage, the pair said they are optimistic that this flood won’t be as catastrophic and long-term solutions are on the way.
“I think we’re just going to try to make do with what we can,” Lare said. “We’re hopeful that in the next few years, there’ll be like an engineering solution, and not have to be preparing for catastrophic flood every summer and apparently fall as well now.”
Earlier this month, the city announced plans to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to install flood protection barriers along four miles of Mendenhall River’s bank in the coming months. Funding for that project will be discussed at an Assembly meeting Monday evening.