The City and Borough of Juneau completed a preliminary assessment of residential damage from the glacial outburst flood that crested on Thursday. Compared to previous years, it was minor.
Ryan O’Shaughnessy, the city’s emergency manager, said that out of about 185 homes assessed along the Mendenhall River, 10 were “affected” — mostly on Meander Way and Killewich Drive — and only two on View Drive had “minor damage.”
“When we say affected, we mean a small amount of water in a crawl space or a garage, a non-living area. An easy way to think about that is something you could use a shop vac for,” O’Shaughnessy said. “When we say minor damage, that’s when we see homes that have inundation in a living space, but typically not higher than a standard electrical outlet.”
Damage costs across all 12 homes are estimated to total $591,000.
Last year, around 50 homes were impacted. And when the catastrophic flood struck in 2024, around 300 homes flooded.
O’Shaughnessy said he plans to finalize the damage assessment by the end of next week before he submits it to the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
“They can make decisions about whether or not to turn on different emergency and disaster programs, like individual assistance or temporary housing assistance,” he said.
He said residents who believe they weren’t included in the preliminary assessment should report any damage to their homes using the city’s web form.
O’Shaughnessy said the primary damage to public infrastructure was some scouring at the abutment of the Mendenhall River foot bridge near Dimond Park.
The city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are still assessing damage to the flood wall made of HESCO barriers.
