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Juneau residents prepare for annual outburst flooding

Published 10:30 pm Monday, July 21, 2025

By Chloe Pleznac

Kai Monture shovels sand into bags at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday<ins>, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska</ins>. Monture does not live in the flood zone, but came out to volunteer to “take care of community. It’s an important value to me.” (Carly Rundle-Borchert/Juneau Empire)
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Kai Monture shovels sand into bags at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. Monture does not live in the flood zone, but came out to volunteer to “take care of community. It’s an important value to me.” (Carly Rundle-Borchert/Juneau Empire)

Kai Monture shovels sand into bags at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday<ins>, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska</ins>. Monture does not live in the flood zone, but came out to volunteer to “take care of community. It’s an important value to me.” (Carly Rundle-Borchert/Juneau Empire)
Carly Rundle-Borchert / Juneau Empire Kai Monture shovels sand into bags at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday<ins>, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska</ins>. Monture does not live in the flood zone, but came out to volunteer to “take care of community. It’s an important value to me.” Kai Monture shovels sand into bags at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. Monture does not live in the flood zone, but came out to volunteer to “take care of community. It’s an important value to me.” (Carly Rundle-Borchert/Juneau Empire)
Michelle Singletary prepares for flood with her family at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. “The first big year we saw water in our front yard but it didn’t reach the house. Second year we had it under our house and in the garage. So we’re preparing,” said Singletary. (Carly Rundle-Borchert/Juneau Empire)
Bob Beard directs vehicles coming in to pick up sand at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. Beard lives in Jupiter, Florida, but took time to volunteer at the event while in Juneau visiting his son. (Carly Rundle-Borchert/Juneau Empire)
People fill bags with sand in preparation for flood at a City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (Carly Rundle-Borchert/Juneau Empire)

Juneau residents have spent the last few weeks preparing for the annual glacier outburst flooding event from Suicide Basin. According to the National Weather Service in Juneau, as of Monday afternoon, the current height of the basin was 1,290 feet, a rise of 17.6 feet over the past seven days, giving it a rise rate of approximately 2.5 feet per day. The total capacity of the basin is 1,371 feet. The NWS says it expects the basin to reach that capacity in mid-August.

Last year, the Mendenhall River crested at 15.99 feet, flooding neighborhoods in the Mendenhall Valley, displacing hundreds of residents and surpassing the previous record of 14.97 feet in 2023. Since then, the City has worked with homeowners in the flood zone on potential solutions, including building a HESCO barrier that could help manage a flood inundation of up to 16 feet.

On July 19, the City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida held a collaborative event distributing sandbags to residents, one of the few low-cost options homeowners and renters have against the impending flood. Tom Mattice, emergency program specialist for CBJ, said on Saturday that the sandbag event has been a truly great community effort, and that it’s been “amazing” to see so many people showing up and volunteering.

“We’re still really counting on the HESCO barriers, the flood barriers they put along the river, but we’re just trying to make sure people have what they feel they need, and this is one more way we can help provide that,” said Mattice.

CBJ will host another sandbag distribution event on July 26 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Dimond Park Field House. Households located within the predicted 18-foot flood inundation area may collect up to 75 sandbags, including those that participated in previous sandbag distribution events.

Photographer Carly Rundle-Borchert contributed to this report.

This article has been corrected. Tom Mattice serves as the emergency program specialist for the City and Borough of Juneau.

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