This story has been updated with additional information.
Morgan Cruz was mowing her lawn a few hours after a flood warning was issued for her neighborhood due to Suicide Basin’s ice dam breaking Sunday morning, saying she and her husband have already planned ahead if the waters reach a troubling level at their expected peak early Tuesday morning.
“We’ll put a tarp and stuff on the garage in case it comes up to the garage and otherwise just kind of prepare,” she said. “The electricity they said might go out, so (we have) flashlights and things like that.”
Cruz said when record flooding reached her neighborhood on Meander Way last year they took their four kids to another house to spend the night, then returned home because “because we have pets and we didn’t know where to put them.” In something of a strange coincidence, the worst damage to her property last year occurred while she was mowing the lawn.
“I was actually mowing the lawn at the same time last year and a tree branch came up and took out our fence,” she said, referring to a now-repaired fence in her back yard.
A similar mentality was prevalent among other residents in neighborhoods affected by last year’s flooding, which partially or completely destroyed three homes and damaged about three dozen others.
Meanwhile, some official agencies began preparatory actions, including the U.S. Forest Service announcing at its website Mendenhall Campground — located in a flood zone near the face of the Mendenhall Glacier — is closed as of Sunday evening.
A glacial outburst flood from Suicide Basin, which has been occurring annually since 2011, started at about 10:20 a.m. Sunday and the Mendenhall River is forecast to reach a near-record level of about 15 feet at 4 a.m. Tuesday — although weather officials emphasize that is offered in order to prepare for a worst-case scenario.
A section of View Drive on Sunday (seen at left) was submerged during record flooding from Suicide Basin on Aug. 5, 2023 (seen at right). A similar level of flooding is officially forecast for the area early Tuesday morning. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Many residents in affected areas said they were aware of preparation steps offered by local and state agencies intended to speed evacuations and safeguard against damage.
“I’ve got a little ‘go’ bag in case we have to evacuate,” said Kailie Bryant, a neighbor of Cruz who said last year she slept with a housemate in their vehicle in the post office parking lot during the peak of the flood. She said she also has two cats to retrieve if she has to stay elsewhere again this year.
A couple of blocks down the street a few people were clustered around a kids’ cold drink and handmade trinkets stand. Karen Plant, their mother, said she slept with her family in their truck in the parking lot at Bartlett Regional Hospital last year when the water level came halfway up her lawn — but without doing any damage to the house — and can do something similar this year if need be.
“We’ll probably leave again, just take the truck and then come back when it recedes,” she said.
A bulletin published by the City and Borough of Juneau at midday Sunday noted “CBJ is prepared to open sheltering services in the event of a major flood.”
On View Drive, where numerous residents were cut off from Juneau’s roads by flooding which submerged an access road, Kim Peterson said she’s made several upgrades to safeguard her home, including inflatable protective liners outside her garage doors to avoid a repeated of last year when the garage was submerged in several inches of water.
“I have pumps in every crawl space…and we’ll probably (install) a generator and have it up because they shut the power off,” she added, referring to an outage last year.
People watch the Mendenhall River from a bridge on Back Loop Road early Sunday afternoon, a few hours after the break of Suicide Basin’s ice dam. The river level of about five feet Sunday morning is forecast to peak at about 15 feet at 4 a.m. Tuesday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Rock fill has also been placed along the riverbank for many, but not all, homes along the Mendenhall River where some of the most severe erosion occurred last year. Nico Bus, who’s lived with his wife in a home on Meander Way for 39 years, said he was one of the first people to install such fill in the early 1990s due to flooding concerns and it has been effective protection, including during last year’s record event which was the first time he saw his street submerged.
A notice reminding residents to secure home heating oil tanks was issued Sunday by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, since many were washed downstream and resulted in spills during last year’s flooding.
Peterson said if a repeat of last year’s record flooding occurs, last year’s response by emergency officials to help stranded residents is encouraging since “they checked in on us all the time.” But she said she’s also not going to worry excessively about what’s going to happen to the water level of the river running past her back yard during the next couple of days.
“No one knows,” she said. “That’s a giant glacier. You can’t expect anybody to predict how much flipping water is going to come out.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
