Residents watching, waiting and planning with HESCO barriers in place as flood season approaches
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jun 27
- 4 min read
Suicide Basin at 1,169 feet on Tuesday, compared to 1,198.24 feet a year ago on same date
The HESCO barriers are mostly in place — and decorated in some people’s backyards. Neighborhoods are coordinating assistance plans for residents who may have difficulty evacuating homes if a third straight year of record flooding occurs.
Now comes the watching and waiting as water builds up in Suicide Basin with the anniversary of those record floods just over a month away.
"We're all in this together," said Debbie Penrose-Fischer during a monthly meeting of the group Juneau Flood Solution Advocates on Thursday evening at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. "And it's been a rough 10 months. It's had twists and turns I wasn't expecting. And hopefully the HESCOs will hold and there won't be any emergency, and there won't be any situation where people are not safe, and we can light a fire under the congressional delegation to keep going with a long-term fix because this is hard to live with."
The water level in Suicide Basin was about 1,169 feet as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, compared to 1,198.24 feet a year ago on the same date, according to the National Weather Service’s official monitoring website.
"These differences are due to the cold spring/early summer time temperatures," the site notes. "Freezing levels remained 3000 to 4000 feet through the spring and early summer time but are now around 7000 feet. These high freezing levels will increase the melt of snow and ice on the icefield and the water input into the basin."
The water level in the basin reached 1,380 feet in 2024 and about 1,400 feet in 2023 before the ice dam broke, according to the website. The Mendenhall River peaked at about 15 feet in 2023 and 16 feet in 2024, and city officials have stated the HESCO barriers should provide protection for water levels up to 18 feet.
Comprehensive flood data and other preparatory information are available at the Juneau Glacial Flood Dashboard website operated by the University of Alaska and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The HESCO barriers are being provided and recommended by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with the city responsible for the cost of installation and maintaining them for what’s expected to be up to a decade while a more permanent solution is established.
But some residents in the flood area — and sympathetic elected officials — have complained the barriers are unwanted intrusions on their properties, and question their effectiveness against being ripped free by trees and other large objects. A total of 466 households in the affected area are being billed about $6,300 per household to cover 40% of the city’s costs for the barriers.
About a dozen people attended Thursday’s meeting, not counting several people who stopped by briefly to pick up free weather alert radios being provided by the Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions Club. The turnout was small compared to some previous meetings, especially during the months after last year’s flood that damaged about 300 homes. But remarks by Thursday’s attendees suggest most have their preparations in place, or at least know what preparations need to be in place.
"Last year we had about a foot or so of water in the house, in the garage and in the dining room, into the crawl space," said Mark Peterson, a Northland Street resident. "We don't have any vents on the outside so we have sandbags and Visqueen to put around the garage door, and all the doors, which is all the places where the water came in."
"The only thing we don't have a real good plan for is our heating systems are all heat pumps, and they're elevated. The water got up right to the bottom, so they are not really put on a stand in a way that you can cover them with Visqueen or anything else. So I have no idea how to protect them."
A key difference residents will need to be aware of is the danger of a breach in the HESCO barriers, Penrose-Fischer said. She said that could change the situation to a flash flood alert, rather than a warning about the break of the Suicide Basin ice dam when residents may have more than a day before all of the water is released and peak flooding occurs.
"By the time they know there's a failure it's going to be different than the last flood where it's lots of water spread out," she said. "It's going to be intense, fast and probably in a narrow area, so probably more dangerous if it happens."
Residents at Thursday’s meetings were divided about whether they will evacuate their homes if flood waters threaten to intrude.
"I have an 88-year-old mother-in-law and a frail wife, and I want to get them out of there — and the two cats," said Brent Fischer, who lives with Debbie Penrose-Fischer on Killewich Drive. "But I'm going to try to rough it out."
Fischer said he is blocking off parts of the house where water may infiltrate and he will be able to escape to safety if he’s still at home while his wife and mother-in-law are somewhere else safe.
"I have a rubber raft and have a ladder for my roof," he said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
HESCO barriers are installed inside a narrow fenced-off backyard of a residence along the Mendenhall River on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)
