Residents pick up sandbags and flood safety tips

Despite dreary weather and an impending flood threat, people were mostly upbeat while picking up free sandbags Saturday to protect their homes if another jökulhlaup like those of the past two summers occurs.

“I’m here filling sandbags, just hoping they end up being lawn ornaments and not in use at my house,” said Kristin Garot, who brought two friends with her to Thunder Mountain Middle School to help fill up sandbags to prepare for a potential glacier outburst flood.

She said floodwaters in her garage on Sharon Street last summer caused some long-lasting aftereffects in her garage. But she’s excited to see the HESCO barriers along the Mendenhall River near her house and hopes they mitigate the effects of this year’s flood.

“Ask me again in August,” she said, laughing.

Record flooding from Suicide Basin during the first week of August the past two years has damaged hundreds of homes and raised fears similar-size releases are now likely to be an annual occurrence.

Nearly 60 people came to the TMMS parking lot Saturday morning for the event organized by the City and Borough of Juneau and Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Households at risk of flooding were offered 50 free sandbags each and volunteers staffing booths offered information about flood preparation, insurance, and food and drinks for tired and wet residents.

Ryan O’Shaughnessy, CBJ’s emergency program manager, said households should use the depth feature of the inundation maps on juneauflood.com to determine how many sandbags to use. He also told people to sign up for flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, especially since Alaska has some of the cheapest premiums in the country.

“Signing up for emergency alerts and purchasing flood insurance are two of the most important things people can do to prepare for the floods,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Maria Jones, one of the volunteers with Tlingit and Haida, said her organization is helping with resource materials and other community aspects.

“We’re just here to help the community and hoping that people will be prepared for the flood when it happens,” Jones said.

Tlingit and Haida will also host a Community Emergency Response Team training event on June 14, 18 and 21. The training will cover things like search and rescue, disaster preparedness and psychology, and fire safety.

Stacey Lacey lives on Rivercourt Way. Last year, she remembers being nervous about being surrounded by floodwaters in the midst of a power outage.

“Watching the water come to the garage, we’re like, ‘Whoo. We hope it doesn’t come into the house,’” she said. “We were lucky, about, like, an inch lucky.” This year, she’s planning to use sandbags to block off the garage.

CBJ and Tlingit and Haida will host another sandbag event on June 14.

• Ellie Ruel can be contacted via editor@juneauempire.com.