NOTN- Federal officials say they are preparing both short- and long-term defenses as another glacial outburst flood is expected to hit Juneau’s Mendenhall River in the coming days, continuing a pattern of annual summer flooding that has put homes and lives at risk.
In a briefing Thursday, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has strengthened temporary protections ahead of the anticipated 2026 glacial outburst flood, and they’ve been gearing up to launch an unprecedented effort to drain water from Suicide Basin, the source of the destructive floods.
Sullivan said the Corps and local partners have invested about $45 million to make Hesco barrier floodwalls along the Mendenhall River taller and wider, and deployed roughly 40% of the Corps’ global pump inventory to Juneau as a backup if the river overtops or breaches the barriers.
“The fact that one of America’s capital cities in our country floods every summer at the risk of not only property but lives, you know, these floods are very risky for not just the safety of our own citizens, it’s a huge, unique challenge.” Sullivan said.” “The Corps of Engineers now has deployed 40% of all the pumps in the Corps of Engineers inventory for the world… in Juneau, just in case.”
Telle said the Corps will move quickly after this year’s flood to seek private-sector proposals for a faster, less costly way to evacuate water from Suicide Basin.
“We believe that evacuating water from Suicide Basin is fundamentally the best way to prevent this from happening in the future,” Telle said, ““We have a phenomenon here in Juneau that’s unlike any other in our entire portfolio.”
According to stories by both KTOO and the Juneau Independent, a local mining executive presented ideas that could cut the cost in half of teh proposed Lake Tap solution in half, groups like Juneau Flood Solutions have supported this effort.
Officials warned the public not to be complacent even with higher barriers in place, saying debris impacts remain a major threat and urging residents to treat the coming flood as a serious safety risk.
