Juneau has a new emergency manager. Ryan O’Shaughnessy took over the role earlier this year.
He first stepped in to help the City and Borough of Juneau’s emergency management department after the 2024 glacial outburst flood.
“I was, you know, watching the special assembly meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6,” O’Shaughnessy said. “And heard that there was some concern about who would be managing long-term recovery, volunteer management, donation management and all of those things.”
So he called and said he wanted to volunteer to help coordinate community efforts. Then in February, he was hired to lead the city’s emergency management team.
He said he’s spent the last few months getting up to speed on the city’s capacity for emergency management and building relationships with other organizations who help in emergencies, like the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s public safety team.
For O’Shaughnessy, the work is personal.
“I have been on both sides of emergency management,” he said.
In 2022, a landslide hit O’Shaughnessy’s house in downtown Juneau. He said seeing the community response to that disaster planted a seed for his work today.
“I wouldn’t say that at that moment it was like … ‘I need to be involved in this,’” he said. “But long term, it definitely had a pretty profound impact.”
Right now, the city is preparing for Juneau’s annual glacial outburst flood, which has happened at the beginning of August the past two years. Floods in the Mendenhall Valley have reached record-breaking levels for two years in a row.
O’Shaughnessy said the city continues to improve its response and communication with residents during the annual event. He strongly encourages Juneau residents to sign up for emergency alerts.
Former Emergency Planning Manager Tom Mattice remains with the department in a specialized role focused on avalanche forecasting.
The city’s emergency team is also currently updating its hazard mitigation plans. Residents can comment on the risk assessment portion of that plan at a public meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
This story has been updated to clarify what the city is updating currently.
