‘It happened so fast’: Speed and scale of Juneau flooding caught residents by surprise

JUNEAU — Kristopher Hill, 28, has lived at his Mendenhall Valley home all his life. He said a friend living on a nearby street called him around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday to say she was evacuating because of rapidly rising floodwaters from the Mendenhall Glacier. He looked outside and saw torrents of water rushing around his house at knee level, he said.

“And within the next minute, it was almost up to my waist. And so I threw all the kids and the dog in the truck, and we took off down the road,” he said.

Hill said cars were floating in the floodwaters as he drove to his grandparents’ house to shelter. The water was at the level of his pickup’s hood, he said.

More than a hundred homes and other dwellings were inundated Tuesday by the flooding, Juneau officials said, after an ice dam burst near the Mendenhall Glacier. It sent billions of gallons of water rushing into Mendenhall Valley neighborhoods at an unprecedented and unexpected scale.

The flooding peaked just after 3 a.m., raising the Mendenhall River to a record level of 15.99 feet, according to the National Weather Service. Several Mendenhall Valley residents reported waking up early in the morning to find a foot of water in their homes and flood levels rapidly rising.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a state disaster declaration on Tuesday, activating the state’s Public Assistance and Individual Assistance Disaster Recovery Program. The State Emergency Operations Center is deploying a division supervisor and operations specialist to Juneau to coordinate the state disaster response and directly support the city’s incident command.

The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly approved its own local emergency Tuesday afternoon as officials described flooding far more widespread than expected, though with no reported injuries. Floodwaters inundated over 100 homes and hundreds of vehicles before receding, they said.

“We anticipate the need for temporary and long-term sheltering assistance; financial support to individuals and businesses; environmental cleanup support due to fuel oil spills; and resources (people, equipment, supplies, and trash disposal) for flooded structures,” according to a resolution supporting the declaration.

Local officials will be helping connect flood-damaged residents with state individual assistance programs, Barr said.

“We know based on last year that for some people it won’t be enough, but it is a start,” he said.

The glacier dam release is known as a jökulhlaup and has occurred in Juneau since 2011. Two condominium buildings were condemned last year by the same flooding phenomenon. Homes washed away as the riverbank rapidly eroded.

Although the ice dam burst was long expected, the scale of this year’s flooding surprised many.

Local officials opened an emergency shelter at Floyd Dryden Middle School. The Juneau Empire reported that the shelter was empty at 1:30 a.m. before roughly 30 people showed up within a couple of hours, many of whom had quickly fled the flooding.

Barr said 43 residents stayed overnight at the shelter. He said many more residents sheltered elsewhere Monday night.

Rescues included at least one person in a wheelchair, officials said. Power was restored by noon and most roads were passable, they said.

There was “significant inundation in neighborhoods that were not anticipating inundation,” Juneau City Manager Katie Koester said during Tuesday’s Assembly meeting, describing residents who expected they wouldn’t be impacted “and then had to leave in a big hurry.”

There have been no reports of homes falling in the river, Koester said.

Flood came fast

Kristopher Hill’s story of surprise at the flood was echoed by other Mendenhall Valley residents who shared similar stories of rising water in neighborhoods that hadn’t flooded before.

Alyssa Fischer, who works at the Juneau Police Department, said she didn’t expect she’d need to evacuate. But the scale of the flooding changed her plans.

“As soon as I started seeing the water rise to about half my tire level, I was like, ‘OK, we’re calling it’ — because it happened so fast. I just didn’t know what to expect anymore.” Fischer said she and her two kids evacuated to the emergency shelter

Bryan Ryder also evacuated to the shelter. He said a car he was hoping to sell had been underwater, and potentially damaged beyond repair. His garage had flooded, destroying a washing machine, dryer and heater. Ryder said he’s lived in the Mendenhall Valley for seven years and had never seen water rise like this.

“We never thought we were in the flood zone,” he said. “So yeah, we don’t have flood insurance.”

Patrice Deasis has rented the ground floor of a house for over two years. She knew the river would flood, but she said she didn’t know how much difference an extra 12 inches of water would make between last year and this. Around 4 a.m., Deasis said, she woke up and stepped out of her bed into a foot of water.

“I didn’t know what to do. I grabbed the pets. I had to put my cat in a backpack,” she said.

By that point, it was too late to evacuate.

“We couldn’t go anywhere, off the streets. Everywhere was flooded. Nobody could drive through. They had closed off the roads anyways,” Deasis said, busy cleaning and salvaging what she could Tuesday morning, though her electronic devices were destroyed.

“There’s nothing to do, really. Renters’ insurance doesn’t work either,” she said.

The clean up

Water levels rose quickly Monday night — and then disappeared rapidly Tuesday morning.

Aaron Jacobs, senior service hydrologist and meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau, said that wasn’t surprising. Billions of gallons of water pool each year in Suicide Basin, off to the side of the Mendenhall Glacier. Once water levels rise and pressure builds, the glacier itself can lift, rapidly draining torrents of water into Mendenhall River.

Jacobs compared the situation to a bathtub. Once the basin is empty, there is no longer a major source of water to raise the Mendenhall River to flood levels.

The river level had dropped to just over 9 feet by noon and had dropped below flood levels by Tuesday evening, data from the National Weather Service showed.

Houses that had been inundated were drying in the sun. Temperatures were in the 70s.

Residents impacted by the flooding were grateful for the sunny weather to dry their sodden possessions outdoors. Some swept or washed silt from the flood waters away from their homes. Front yards were filled with a random assortment of housewares — some salvageable, some not.

Nico and Susan Bus, who live on Meander Way on the banks of the Mendenhall River, evacuated overnight. They returned Tuesday morning to find the ground floor of their house under six inches of water and ran a pump to empty water from the basement.

Friends and neighbors came over to help clean and pull up sodden carpet. Priceless family photographs and other mementos were sitting in the sun.

“Everybody’s just grabbing something and sending it out and letting it dry,” Nico Bus said. “And yeah, well, it’s good to have friends like that.”

In some low-lying areas, there was still a foot or so of standing water on Tuesday afternoon. On Long Run Drive, a damaged car sat stranded in the middle of the road.

Nearby, Andrew Miller, who woke up early Tuesday morning to find a foot of standing water in his house, still had water in his front yard in the afternoon. He said that two cars he owned, including one bought a month ago, wouldn’t start after the flood.

Like many Mendenhall Valley residents, Miller had friends come to clean up throughout the day. Clothes, sleeping bags and photographs dried in the sun outdoors, but he remained philosophical.

“Worse things have happened to better people,” he said.

Juneau officials are organizing a debris collection for impacted residents, and they anticipate a long recovery. The United Way is also working to connect people who want to volunteer with residents who need assistance.

Sean Maguire reported from Juneau and Zaz Hollander reported from Palmer.