LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Residents of Juneau, Alaska, are relieved after a flood from a glacial outburst crested Thursday afternoon without causing major damage. Glacial melt caused by climate change fills up a pool every year until it bursts out into the suburban valley below. Alix Soliman of Member Station KTOO has the story.
ALIX SOLIMAN, BYLINE: Floods on the Mendenhall River were minor until a few years ago when a couple of dozen homes were damaged. Then in 2024, about 300 homes flooded. Last year, the city raised a temporary flood wall that just barely held. Some 50 homes were damaged. But this summer was different. The flood crested lower than it has over the past three years, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. At a press briefing Thursday evening, Chalyee Eesh Richard Peterson, president of Tlingit and Haida, the local tribe, called the event anticlimactic.
CHALYEE EESH RICHARD PETERSON: I think we're experiencing a collective sigh of relief in Juneau, and especially those in the area impacted.
SOLIMAN: City and tribal officials are still tallying damage, but they say so far, it looks minor. Ann Lind (ph) lives next to the river. She says she had been anxiously waiting for the flood. Last year, her home flooded when drainage pipes failed and water leaked through the city's flood wall.
ANN LIND: For months, it was like this slow-moving bullet coming straight at me. Didn't know if it was going to be a hit or a miss, and today, it's a miss.
SOLIMAN: This year, Lind says the water didn't even reach the floodwall in her backyard. The city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers extended the flood wall and built it higher this year after the record-breaking flood in 2025 flowed over the top in some areas. Now, this is the second year in a row that View Drive residents were left without the protection of the floodwall since officials say the soil on that street is too unstable. Residents there say they saw damage as they have every year. But Mandy Mallott (ph), who lives at the end of View Drive, says her home was spared.
MANDY MALLOTT: The emotions that are running through us, a big sense of relief and thankfulness to our friends and our neighbors.
SOLIMAN: Glacial outburst floods are not uncommon in places with glaciers, but Juneau is the only U.S. city that deals with this danger. Around 2,000 homes were in the evacuation zone this year. Glaciologists say that human-caused climate change created this event. As the Mendenhall glacier melted, the pool grew to release more water. But eventually, the glacier could retreat so much that the pool disappears. That could take an estimated 25 years. In the meantime, the Army Corps is considering a long-term solution to drain it. For NPR News, I'm Alix Soliman in Juneau.
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