By WIN GRUENING
Last week’s sudden catastrophic flooding of the Mendenhall River is one of the worst disasters in Juneau’s history. The 1917 Treadwell Mine cave-in and the 1936 landslide that killed 15 people may rank higher in terms of loss of life or economic damage. But this flood damaged nearly 300 homes and hundreds of vehicles. The economic losses will top tens of millions of dollars.
Fortunately, there were no serious injuries or loss of life. The clean-up and re-building will take many months and stretch the financial resources of the city and all those impacted by the flood. The personal emotional toll on affected families is incalculable.
Individuals can help in many ways. Volunteer opportunities are available and donations to help flood victims can be made to a variety of organizations from churches and the Salvation Army to the United Way.
Disaster relief aid from all levels of government will be forthcoming and welcome. But the crucial challenge facing Juneau is how to prevent this from happening again. The answer to that is complicated and undoubtedly very expensive.
Retreating glaciers can create unstable lakes filled by meltwater and rain that are dammed by ice or sediment. When those dams eventually break, they can send huge walls of water crashing down populated valleys and rivers. Called a glacial outburst flood or jökulhlaup, it is a phenomenon also seen in other parts of the world. The Mendenhall Glacier has created such a lake, now named Suicide Basin, and hydrologists estimated it contained around 14 billion gallons of water before it burst.
Jökulhlaups have occurred in Juneau since 2011 but none as severe as this year. Eventually, the glacier will recede, and Suicide Basin will no longer fill with water. However, other potential basins behind it could create a similar hazard.
The consequences of this catastrophe are far-reaching, well beyond immediate clean-up and reconstruction efforts.
This is where government must step in. Federal, state, and local.
One of government’s core responsibilities is to ensure that basic infrastructure and public safety are maintained so that individuals can earn a living and provide shelter and economic security for themselves and their families.
Juneau cannot survive, let alone prosper, with the threat of annual floods on the scale experienced last week. While it is impossible for experts to predict the magnitude of the next such natural disaster, it could be even more devastating.
The solution points towards a flood mitigation project that would divert or contain potential flood water, preventing it from overflowing into residential areas. Senator Dan Sullivan, who visited Juneau last Thursday to survey the flood damage, has already made initial contact with the Corps of Engineers seeking their help.
Something of this scope requires complex engineering and several years to design, permit and construct. Therefore, short-term/intermediate steps must also be considered to limit potential future flooding.
Assisting individual property owners navigate the bureaucracy and financial burden of rehabilitating properties will fall to various levels of government, including the City and Borough of Juneau. Unfortunately, many of the homes were not located in a designated floodplain and were largely uninsured for flood damage.
The value and marketability of hundreds of homes and some businesses in the Mendenhall Valley, even those that may have escaped damage, is now questionable. After city property tax assessments are adjusted for that, it will put a dent in municipal revenues.
The possible loss of housing stock will put more pressure on housing availability and cost. Will the city respond by cutting red tape and expediting the necessary permits for contractors and builders?
It is imperative that elected leaders conserve revenues and minimize discretionary and unnecessary expenditures. That is the only way that taxes will remain manageable, particularly for impacted homeowners, and allow city financial resources to be devoted to core services and projects that matter.
This disaster should not be an excuse to raise taxes. Projects that the voters have rejected should be put on hold. Significant funds amassed for them could be used to mitigate budget issues until the full extent of the city’s financial obligations are known.
The future may appear daunting, but with financially responsible leadership focusing on protecting lives, property, and the welfare of its citizens, the Juneau community can endure.
After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.
I thought you all thought Government was bad! Just keep telling yourself global warming is fake and the glaciers will all stop retreating!
Hush child. Adults are talking.
Where?
What is with you and children? Creepy.
Mendenhall Glacier has been retreating for well over one hundred years, long before man-made “global warming” could honestly be offered as a reason. OTOH, “climate change” will and has occurred continuously for millennia. I would be interested in hearing your solutions to the flooding problem, if any.
The glaciers around Juneau have been melting for thousands of years.
No matter what changes this climate goes through, paying more taxes to parasitic politicians will not save you.
As a human, you must adapt to changes or be taken out by nature.
Are you prepared for what may come or do you really believe the government is going to protect you?
I guess whatever happens, we will all be tested to see how fit we are. Earn your right to exist in this world or else be swept up by those who prey on your weakness.
The choice is yours.
Uh, not all Glaciers are retreating. The Taku has been sprinting forward for decades and to date has filled an immense fjord with billions of tons of sand.
Interestingly the Mendenhall has retreated, then advanced and is currently retreating.
A mere 12,000 years ago ice thousands of feet thick covered most of Coastal Alaska. It’s been warming for several millennium. But that was before quack political scientists and democrats had control of the media…
I don’t believe our neighbors are liable for the poor choices and or circumstances others make. Building your home in a creek bed is simply poor decision making. I know, I know, what about the children………
Remember you said that if an earthquake takes out your house. And don’t file for insurance. You chose to live in the ring of fire.
The floodwaters came to, roughly, one thousand feet of the house I lived in while in high school. Few, if any, people contemplated this phenomenon when the houses in the flood zone were constructed. There have been flood studies but I do not know if this threat was discussed. Measures to control the flooding will be quite expensive and difficult to build. Some homes at highest risk may have to be abandoned. I am not keen on passing on the risk and expense of this problem to the rest of Alaska to benefit State bureaucrats in Juneau. Juneau may want to establish a special “flood abatement zone” so that those that benefit will pay for improvements. Insurance will also play a role.
It’s called shot rock and they build jetties with it. It keeps the Bering Sea out of Nome and it’s building the new deep water sea port there. It also keeps water in a channel so it doesn’t destroy residential areas….
In the mean time, Governor Dunleavy should follow up his declaration of disaster with an executive order to hold the next session of the legislature in Anchorage to keep all housing options open for those in need in Juneau.
I can already foresee the housing moguls raising their rents….
What I still don’t get is why nothing ever gets done. We go through this every year.
We know it’s gonna flood to one degree or another. So why is Swampy just starting this now?
That would be socialism. We should let the market work this out.
Democrats never let a good catastrophe go to waste. They can clamor for more taxes, federal aid, and their climate change contingent can beat the drums of global warming (even though the glaciers in and around Juneau have been melting for centuries. They use Howitzers to control avalanches, may work on this.
Most of the houses impacted were not in a flood zone. This is not a question of “poor choices”. This act of nature was unprecedented and, until recently, unexpected. No different than Anchorage’s earthquake.
Yes, Win, they are in a flood zone. Look up the 100 year map. Or check with USACE and they will show you one. If they weren’t in the flood plain, then the homeowners would have insurance that covers the damage.
Exactly
Exactly….to be clear…in agreement with Wise Win.
They weren’t in a government approved flood zone, obviously they were in a flood zone. Just because some people need government to tell them the difference does not change the facts. I’m sorry that you rely upon government to make your decisions for you, please do not fall for the notion that we should require government to make all decisions for all people in all matters.
Not sure it is the government’s job to tell people to not build in a flood plain. Not sure those houses should have been permitted, frankly. It’s rather like the fools building million dollar homes in the slide zone in Anchorage. Really? Not only could disaster strike, it will. I’m equally certain that private homeowner’s insurance will tell the homeowner what is and isn’t covered, and if flooding isn’t covered, it is because that’s a poor location for your house. Maybe instead of asking for a handout, people could educate themselves. You can probably stave it off for a while, but Nature always wins, always.
Helicopter in some gigantic pumps and start draining the lake in May. Blast open the dam formation in September.
Excellent column.
This should be a wake up call for the CBJ Assembly and especially for the current Mayor of Juneau.
It’s probably not.
Beth Weldon and most of the current members are too busy being “woke” to wake up and address this problem in an adult manner.
We truly get what we deserve if we reelect Weldon and continue electing folks with limited ability to address real problems with actual solutions.
Whoever said talk is cheap wasn’t aware of how Juneau’s local government functions. Much talk, lots of emotion, plenty of funds for expended with mediocre results in too many instances.
Oh well …………..
Joe, you rightly point out that ” talk” from a leftist a$$embly isn’t cheap. I can only answer with this, ” be grateful you don’t get the full measure of government that you pay for”.
I’ll take their talk and inaction over a focused and dynamic action in exactly the wrong direction.
Think Soviet style 5 year plans…
And Suicide Basin has had that named for decades. I guided on that glacier for TEMSCO and Coastal every summer.
It became a lake every year.
People chose to build in a FEMA mapped floodplain. A known hazard.
To say this is new sounds kind of…. unAlaskan.
Location, location, location
Except that most of the houses that were flooded were built well before the Suicide Basin phenomenon developed. Did you guide on the glacier in the mid-80s? I suspect not.
LOLOL!
So this JUST started recently? Maybe you need a better understanding of jökulhlaup’s and the Mendenhall Glacier.
Hint: NOT NEW.
Flood zone AE. It is mapped.
This has been mapped for decades. Did you look up the flood zones? Well documented.
The glacier has been doing this for decades. Nothing new there either.
Columnists should be held to a factual standard. I guess that is why there are comments sections to keep them honest.
Suicide Basin – the name should tell you everything you need to know if you are not stupid!
Not sure what flood maps people are viewing. The most recent FEMA Flood Map of the Mendenhall Valley (see link below) shows that most of the valley is not located in a flood zone.
https://hazards-fema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8b0adb51996444d4879338b5529aa9cd&extent=-134.6906483983593,58.36060746694234,-134.53168996330075,58.40560308495243
Not sure what flood maps people are viewing. The most recent FEMA Flood Map of the Mendenhall Valley (see screen print above in story and link below) shows that most of the valley is not located in a flood zone. The colored and cross-hatched areas are the only flood hazards and are located primarily along the river bank.
‘https://hazards-fema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8b0adb51996444d4879338b5529aa9cd&extent=-134.6906483983593,58.36060746694234,-134.53168996330075,58.40560308495243
Gruening is trying to obfuscate with ‘the most recent FEMA hogwash’ trust the science links and quotes. Everyone knew this flood was going to happen. Homeowners should have had flood insurance. Why didn’t they??
And now we hear, “Please, please, big gov’t bail me out for my bad choices.” Here’s a better idea, move the Capitol to Southcentral where it belongs and let the rainforest take over the uninhabitable parts of Juneau:)
No obfuscation here. Just stating facts. Homeowners that bought a house and lived there for years had no reason to expect being flooded since they weren’t in a flood zone. FEMA decides where flood zones are located and homeowners and mortgage companies depend on their “hogwash” to make loan and purchase decisions.
Now homeowners can’t sell their house even if they could get flood insurance. No one will buy in an area that gets flooded every year. The federal government bailed Fairbanks out in the 60’s with a flood mitigation project when their river routinely flooded. Not sure why Juneau should be any different.
This is a natural disaster that was difficult to predict and there was no way to prevent it. Blaming homeowners isn’t the answer.
I think that a siphon could be installed quickly and relatively easy to drain off excess water. something should have been done after last years release. we need to respond to our problems before they are out of control.
Robert, how about we just get those boys from Elmendorf to drop some ordnance from their really cool F-22’s?
I’m guessing that an air show that displays awesome air power would become a very popular annual event in old Juneau.
One recalls the Snow Birds back in the ’80s.
“Save us Big Government, Save us!”, cried the Libertarians. You hate it until you need it, and then it’s your best friend.
Win- you need to learn how to read a FEMA Flood map. Looks like all the flooded areas ARE within the 100 year ZONE AE.
And tis is NOT a new phenomenon. If you do no think this glacier has flooded this area in the last 500 years, you need to go back to school.
OR take a trip to the visitors center and get educated.
The latest FEMA flood map embedded in the my op-ed above shows which areas in the Mendenhall Valley are in a flood zone. The red and blue cross-hatched areas indicate Zone AE hazard (100 year flood plain). The blue areas are Zone BFE (which are a higher flood hazard) and are mostly located directly next to the Mendenhall River. As you can see in that map (or you can click on the link I supplied and generate your own map), most of the Mendenhall Valley is not located in a Zone AE (cross-hatched) or Zone BFE (blue).
I would be happy to provide you with a better resolution map (PDF) if you send me your email address.
The areas that were flooded ARE in the 100 year mapped area.
No one said the ENTIRE valley was a flood zone.
BUT the areas flooded DID match the mapped areas.
I know how to read the map. I work in that industry. In fact the mapped areas MATCHED the flooded areas. Coincidently enough.
100 year flood zones are right.
Win – FEMA doesn’t decide where flood zones are, Nature does! Unfortunately, government agencies often times bend to the will of financial interests that fly in the face of common sense & yes, science.
TRUE.
Don’t confuse him with reality. He is already having a hard enough time with the ZONE AE and 100 year definitions.
But yes- NATURE BATS LAST.
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