The short-term hope is federal disaster officials are more willing to provide relief since this year’s flooding was worse than last year’s when aid was denied, but the key longer-term discussion now occurring among officials is an “engineering solution” to the glacial outburst floods causing massive damage in Juneau, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said during a visit Thursday.
“We can’t have it that Juneau has this problem every summer,” he said. “That’s just not sustainable.”
Sullivan, visiting a day after U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Gov. Mike Dunleavy met with officials and local residents affected by the flood, observed the damage from overhead in a helicopter as well as on the ground where large-scale cleanup efforts are underway. He met with local, state, tribal and weather officials to discuss relief aid and what options might be feasible for preventing similar future disasters.
This year’s flooding from Suicide Basin that peaked Tuesday morning damaged more than 100 homes, hundreds of vehicles, and other structures and infrastructure spanning a wide path along the Mendenhall River. Last year’s flood, also during a record river level at the time, damaged about 40 homes, including three that were partially or completely destroyed.
Federal disaster aid for residents affected by last year’s flooding was denied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, resulting in many people taking out loans or resorting to other means to pay huge repair costs. Sullivan said he discussed this year’s flood with the FEMA director on Tuesday and believes the larger scope of this year’s disaster makes federal aid more likely.
“I will certainly be strongly advocating that they should grant it and that’s one of the many reasons I wanted to come out here and be on the ground, so I can be a better advocate for this when the declaration goes forward,” he said.
State disaster relief is available for people affected by the flood following an emergency declaration by Dunleavy on Tuesday, which is limited to $21,250 per person/household for housing repair and an additional $21,250 for personal property damages. Approval of FEMA disaster relief would raise those limits to $42,500 for housing assistance and $42,500 for other needs.
The next — and much bigger — question is what options might exist to prevent future disasters, especially since local climate and weather experts have stated large-scale glacial outburst floods are likely to be a more regular occurrence in Juneau due to climate change. The experts said Suicide Basin will literally disappear as a threat some years from now as the glacier continues to recede, but similar basins with ice dams are likely to emerge.
Sullivan said “we have already reached out to the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers (about) an engineering solution to this problem,” which was part of the discussions he had with local and state officials during his visit in Juneau on Thursday.
“One of the things that came out of here was ‘Hey, this can’t be the only place in the world that’s experiencing something similar — whether in Iceland or Finland or Sweden there’s got to be similar challenges with receding glaciers near big communities,” he said. “So number one, I think, we need to look at best practices on what people in other parts of the world are dealing with.”
An example of such thinking — for a different type of flooding problem — is the Lowell Creek Diversion Tunnel in Seward completed in 1940, Sullivan said. The installation consisting of a diversion dam, tunnel and outlet flume — the first Alaska project by the Corps of Engineers — was built to control a mountain river that typically caused one or more serious floods a year in the town.
A range of possibilities was discussed after last year’s Suicide Basin flood from seemingly unserious references to “bombing” the glacier to more elaborate suggestions such as drilling a drainage tunnel under Suicide Basin that allows diverting the flow of water and/or limiting accumulation in the basin.
Two things that will be needed for any kind of “engineering solution” to happen quickly are money and a lack of bureaucratic obstacles, Sullivan said.
“This shouldn’t be something that is going to require a 10-year haggling with the Forest Service over permitting on an engineering project to help save lives and property,” he said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
