KTOO Climate and Environment reporter Alix Soliman has been in the Mendenhall Valley covering the glacial outburst flood this week. She talked with KTOO’s education reporter, Jamie Diep, about what Mendenhall Valley residents said after the flood crested.
Jamie Diep: To start, Alix, what have you seen around the Mendenhall Valley during the major flood stage?
Alix Soliman: As floodwaters rose above 14 feet, we only saw a handful of industrial pumps running in the middle of the Valley. A couple homes on Killewich Drive reported water in their crawl spaces. But, notably, Meander Way was pretty dry – [City Government Reporter] Clarise [Larson] and I could walk in the street without getting wet, unlike last year. And it was a gorgeous sunny day. Kids were biking around, people were walking their dogs. Folks were waving to us from their porches.
Jamie Diep: View Drive was left without protection from HESCO barriers for a second year in a row. How are things looking there?
Alix Soliman: There has definitely been some damage. So far, I’ve received reports of at least a few homes flooding – I’m going to head there soon. But there have also been success stories. One resident at the end of the cul-de-sac called to tell me that the HESCO barriers she and her neighbors installed themselves worked. So some homes that have flooded in the past were actually spared this year on that hard-hit street. And they say the water moving slower and the crest reaching a lower height than over the past three years definitely helped.
Jamie Diep: What parts of the Valley have you been to, and do you have a sense of how many people evacuated?
Alix Soliman: I spent the day riding bikes with Clarise around the middle of the Valley. From below Back Loop Bridge to Meander Way. We don’t really have a sense of how many people evacuated. We know 15 people spent the night at the Floyd Dryden gymnasium. And a lot of the folks we talked to had evacuated parts of their families and pets, or had evacuated only at the crest and were there in the hours leading up to that. Some left people behind to pump water if necessary. I wonder about whether people in the expanded flood zone — since the city enlarged it this year — chose to evacuate or not. We just don’t know that right now.
Jamie Diep: What are you hearing from residents and officials now that the crest has passed?
Alix Soliman: There’s a huge sigh of relief reverberating through the Valley right now. People are celebrating with their families and neighbors – they’re making plans to go fishing. A lot of people are happy they’re not spending the rest of the day trying to dry out their homes and belongings.
Jamie Diep: What else are you following as the floodwaters recede and residents return?
Alix Soliman: Quite a few things – I’ll be looking for a final tally of damage, and surveying the high water line on the riprap and HESCO barriers along the river. I know in some areas, like parts of Marion Drive, the river didn’t even touch the barriers. I’ll be curious to see how the river channel has changed — in past years the floods have scoured it deeper — so I wonder if that’s the story still. Also, I’m dying to know why the release was so slow out of Suicide Basin this year. In the days and weeks coming up we’ll get the final cubic feet per second and the scientists will probably have an analysis or theories about what happened. There was a large glacial calving event in Suicide Basin in the week leading up to the flood, and I’m curious about whether icebergs clogged up the outlet hole in the glacier.
See the latest flood updates on our live blog.
