Authorities have issued an alert as Suicide Basin — now theatrically dubbed Kʼóox Ḵaadí Basin — is actively overtopping, or spilling over its brim. City warnings urge residents in potential inundation zones in the Mendenhall Valley to complete last-minute preparations, confirm evacuation routes, and prepare a go-bag.
The latest warning arrives against a backdrop of ever more frequent glacial dam outbursts originating from the basin along the retreating Mendenhall Glacier that now traps meltwater in a deep rock pool. The National Weather Service/NOAA estimates that the next outburst could occur within 1 to 6 days from the start of overtopping, which means it is now imminent. Current height of the basin is 1364 feet; water levels rose 23 feet in the last seven days. NOAA images at this link.
The basin’s first recorded release occurred in 2011. It is now a grim summer tradition, with repeat outbursts each year.
- 2023 brought a devastating flood, cresting the Mendenhall River at 14.82 feet, triggering evacuations and destroying structures.
- 2024 was record-setting, starting on Aug. 6. The river crested at 15.99 feet, causing damage and destruction to over 300 homes and inflicting widespread hardship to those in the Mendenhall Valley.
Today, the basin is among the most closely monitored glacial lakes on Earth. Between USGS satellite-linked cameras, laser sensors, flood dashboards, and partnerships with the US Army Corps of Engineers, City and Borough of Juneau, and National Weather Service, authorities track every inch.
This year, the city installed 2.5 miles of HESCO flood barriers — roughly 10,000 barriers, four feet tall — to shield over 460 properties from a flood echoing the recent record-breaking years.
The hyper-woke sensibility continues in Juneau as the city has now named the basin Kʼóox Ḵaadí — a Tlingit term presumably meaning something like “water-thing basin.” Glaciers covered the Mendenhall Valley during the era when Tlingits were the only humans in the region. Suicide Basin is a very recent phenomenon, only a feature for the past 15 years.
Nothing says “we’re taking this seriously” like retroactively bestowing an indigenous name on a geological feature that wasn’t a factor until 15 years ago.
Also notable, the City and Borough of Juneau has signaled it is now sharing governance responsibilities with Tlingit & Haida Central Council, as noted in this announcement. Tlingit & Haida’s president Richard Peterson has been put on leave while the organization investigates multiple claims against him by women in the organization. The organization is said to be in disarray, which begs the question: Is it capable of fulfilling these co-governing duties during a natural disaster when it is trying to navigate its own organizational disaster? Or is this co-governance merely a charade by both the City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida?