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City seeks feedback from flood-zone residents
Survey closes Friday; questions ask about disaster response by individuals and agencies this year
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
More than two dozen Mendenhall Valley residents who stayed or evacuated during the 2026 glacial lake outburst flood said the city’s emergency response has generally improved compared to three years ago.
“I think this year was much better,” said Amanda Hatch, who lives on Meander Way. “I think it still needs a little bit of work and some refining, but compared to the ’23 and the ’24 and the ’25, this year was by far the best. It’s not perfect, but it was better.”
She attributed this largely to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city running industrial-level pumps to address seepage this year. Last year, Meander Way residents ran water pumps during an all-time high crest of 16.65 feet. Hatch said she was also thankful for earlier road closures and the city opening its emergency flood hotline earlier.
Annual outbursts from Suicide Basin began in 2011. The first unprecedented record-breaking flood was in 2023, with a Mendenhall River crest of 14.97 feet. This year, the river crested at 14.7 feet on Aug. 13, with flood damage reported to be significantly less than in previous years, according to the City and Borough of Juneau. An Evening at Egan lecture by University of Alaska Southeast researchers Eran Hood and Jason Amundson is scheduled for Oct. 30 to talk about the science behind this year’s crest, the lowest in four years.
The city hosted a debrief for flood-impacted residents on Sept. 16 at Thunder Mountain Middle School.
“I know each year is different in terms of the flood, but it’s also different in how we approach it, and how we treat it, and how we feel about these things,” said Ryan O’Shaughnessy, the city’s emergency manager.
A flood debrief survey is open until Friday, with a deadline of 5 p.m. Residents are invited to share their experiences about the 2026 outburst. The feedback aims to help the city continue improving emergency preparedness and response efforts. The information will be presented to the Juneau Assembly to share perspectives.
Ashley Heimbigner, the city’s communications director, said she thought about the roller coaster of information Juneau has been experiencing over the last four years.
“We, as an organization and with our partners, really set some goals based on the conversations we've had with you to adjust our communications in several ways, and what we heard from you and your neighbors was that you wanted more timely and more consistent information flows,” she told debrief attendees. “You wanted to know what was going on with the HESCO barriers — you wanted to know what was going on with the long-term solution conversation — and you wanted to know how you were going to prepare for this year’s glacial lake outburst flood.”
She said the city officially established these efforts in 2025 by launching a joint communication strategy and wanted to remain consistent this year to avoid confusing residents.
Improvements included flood inundation maps, social media outreach, door hangers, livestreaming press briefings, and extending hours for the flood hotline, Heimbigner said. The city revised its emergency alerts this summer, a process that began in 2024. As of 2025, the city started using the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
Residents attending the debrief agreed the city’s alerts need further revision, particularly when announcing Suicide Basin is at capacity and when it starts releasing.
“The only problem we noticed was that first alert that went out to notify that the basin was full with the alarm was a little bit too alarming,” Hatch said, adding it was especially confusing for the older population.
She and other attendees asked the city to distinguish between the two sounds because the first alert notifying the public the basin was full on Aug. 11 scared some people into “go” mode. It was meant to shift the community into “set.”
“Everybody had been gearing up for so long,” Hatch said as an explanation for the reaction. “I think there should still be an alert that the basin is full, but maybe a different tone.”
Other residents suggested sending a text, not blaring a citywide emergency alert.
Sandy Edwardson, a Killewich Drive resident, added that she didn’t understand the “ready, set, go” model. The city began using this approach in 2025, ahead of statewide adoption.
“I was at work, and all 12 people’s phones went off all at once, and I nearly had a heart attack,” she said. “I called my boss up. I’m like, ‘I'm leaving. It’s gonna happen now.’ And I run home, and then it’s like, one to five days.”
The basin began releasing later that same day, causing further confusion.
Attendees agreed pre-filled sandbags this year, provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city, were helpful. Residents in the flood zone could drive up to collect them.
“In past years, we had to fill the bags ourselves, and that was like a three-week ordeal with me and my other four family members doing the bags,” Edwardson said.
Residents added an Army Corps video on setting up sandbags was useful and widely distributed.
“I did change how I set them up this year,” said Kristin Garot, who lives on Sharon Street. “One of the things that has been hardest is I don’t really know how to prep my house.”
Others said they’d like more preparation information in advance, like how to secure oil tanks. Volunteers for sandbagging houses are still needed.
Valley residents were asked if they chose to evacuate during the 2026 flood. Residents expressed feeling torn about the decision in August when the advisory was issued.
There was a similar mix of responses at the debrief.
Rebecca Bellmore said her family evacuated because a new map released by the city this year placed them in the evacuation zone. She said she would like more information about what would happen if the HESCO barriers, first installed in 2025, were to breach.
Since the barriers were extended this summer, additional homes were placed in the zone to consider the possibility of a flash flood in case there was a HESCO failure. Belmore said her house hasn’t flooded and it’s at the edge of the 18-foot-inundation zone.
“I don’t think we ever really heard what the plan was if there was a breach, other than like flash flood warning,” she said. “Like, where does the water go? Are they going to breach again downstream to let it back in downstream? We just didn't know what would happen, and it made us uncomfortable, and so we evacuated. We had a place to go.”
Many people who evacuated reported staying with family and friends rather than the shelter operated by the American Red Cross at Floyd Dryden, which recorded a total of 24 people and three pets over the period of the advisory. Juneau Animal Rescue also offered shelter for pets.
Representatives and volunteers from the Red Cross attended the debrief to learn what they might do differently next year.
Ann Wilkinson Lind and Debbie Penrose-Fischer asked the Red Cross to improve the shelter for elderly and disabled residents.
The Red Cross hosted an emergency preparedness workshop with one-on-one guidance for seniors and people with access or medical needs ahead of the flood. Loren Jones, the volunteer partner to the disaster program manager, has responded to the last four floods with the Red Cross.
The shelter is in an open gymnasium with little privacy. Jones added foot traffic has increased since the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska began its daycare in the building.
“Generally, we don’t provide medical services, and while we have some ability to change the structure, where we shelter is set by the city,” Jones said in an interview.
He said the Red Cross doesn’t provide transportation to the shelter and the city uses school buses, which are generally not wheelchair accessible.
“You can’t have an alert to say leave, somebody call up and say, ‘I want to go to the shelter, and I have a wheelchair, and I can’t get out of my house.’ You end up calling CCFR,” Jones said, recalling this happened in 2024.
“We need to talk about what we can provide and what we can’t provide,” he said, adding he will see what is possible for the future.
“Like the city, like everywhere else, you learn every time you do something new,” he said.
Juneau Flood Solution Advocates organized and fundraised for Eyes on the River in 2025. The neighborhood group added new cameras this year to monitor the Mendenhall River, blocked from view by HESCO barriers.
“There’s tons more data, and that’s good. But it also means that you can just sit there and stare at the screen, which changes your perspective,” Sam Hatch said.
Wilkinson Lind agreed. She said she evacuated her pets and children, but stayed home to monitor her house on Marion Way. She said the amount of information was so overwhelming this year that she stopped looking at social media and the Suicide Basin monitoring page.
“Some days I would wake up and sit in my chair all day and just be paralyzed. I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “So after the event, when all this started to let go, I felt like I was falling apart.”
Wilkinson Lind was not alone in this feeling. Others at the debrief described “flood fatigue” and counseling to cope with the recurring disaster. They also talked about experiencing an adrenaline crash with a lower crest than previous years.
Edwardson said livestreams of the river helped relieve her stress after evacuating.
“I know my neighbors like I’ve never known them before,” she added, expressing gratitude for the Juneau Flood Solution Advocates. A group chat started by Penrose-Fischer connected about 30 people throughout the release.
The neighborhood group also organized community meetings after the flood, capturing similar perspectives presented to the city.
O’Shaughnessy and Heimbigner acknowledged the stress annual flooding causes and said it was important to hear people’s thoughts, encouraging people to submit their concerns. All questions asked during the debrief are listed in the survey for residents who could not attend the in-person session.
Near the end, debrief attendees were asked if there was an aspect of flood response preparation where people felt unsupported this year.
A request was made for the broader community to change its outlook.
“This is more than just a Valley problem. This is a city problem. We have wastewater treatment plants. We have schools. We have grocery stores,” Edwardson said. “I hear that this is a Valley problem a lot from other people, and they just don’t understand it could wipe out our water treatment plant.”
“We’ve got two bridges — if both of them go out for some reason we’re stuck,” Julie Coffin, her neighbor, agreed. She added she'd like to see more support for View Drive.
“It’s even way bigger than that,” said Steve Bowhay, who lives on James Boulevard. “Everything about what’s going on is a world event. How we handle this is going to be viewed all the way around the world.”
NHK-WORLD-Japan was filming at the debrief session last month.
The city asked September debrief attendees not to focus their discussion on a long-term solution to Juneau’s annual outbursts. The Army Corps is scheduled to sign an award agreement for a final project by Dec. 11.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
