Residents in all avalanche paths alerted by city to evacuate due to increasing rain; advisory could last days in some areas
- Jasz Garrett
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 10 hours ago
Thane Road closed as of noon, the same time a Centennial Hall Emergency Shelter opened
By Jasz Garrett and Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
An evacuation alert for all locations in known avalanche paths — affecting hundreds of people — was issued by the city on Friday morning due to rain and wind. An emergency shelter at Centennial Hall opened at noon.
A flood watch is also in effect until 9 p.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service Juneau.
City offices, public schools, the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles, and other facilities and businesses were closed Friday, with many stating they will not reopen until the avalanche advisory is lifted. According to a notice on the state website, certain state offices, including the Departments of Public Safety, Corrections, and Family and Community Services, remained open.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities closed Thane Road at the avalanche gates at noon due to high avalanche hazard to the roadway. This emergency closure will be re-evaluated at 8 a.m. on Saturday; however, Thane residents should be prepared for extended road closures, according to DOT's Avalanche Hazard Reduction and Closure notice.
Capital Transit has suspended service along Glacier Highway in the affected area, which extends from the downtown Federal Building to Bartlett Regional Hospital.
The U.S. Coast Guard will provide emergency supplies and transport to Thane residents if necessary, local emergency officials said during a midday press briefing.
It is not known exactly how many residents the evacuation alert affects, but it is in the hundreds, Ryan O'Shaughnessy, the city’s emergency programs manager, said during the briefing.
The city’s cold-weather emergency shelter in Thane is being relocated to the Marie Drake building, said Jennifer Skinner, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Juneau, which operates the shelter. She said social service agencies such as the Glory Hall are being notified of the change, and notices will be posted and transportation provided to the new shelter location for people at typical shuttle locations such as the downtown library.
Assembly Member Neil Steininger, who lives on Gastineau Avenue, said he was trying to decide in the minutes following the city's 10:30 a.m. alert if he would vacate his home.
"It turns out the avalanche zone is like five feet from my property line, so I'm trying to make a decision," he said.
Steininger said he has family he can stay with in Juneau if he leaves.
"I definitely would encourage people to be safety conscious as they make the decision, especially those that are solidly in the zone," he said. "As everybody knows, we've had way more snow than we've ever had before and heavy rains are not going to make the situation better. So be safety conscious. Put things together, and if you can find friends or family to stay with or go to the evacuation site, that's the safest course of action."
The evacuation comes after more than a week of monitoring elevated avalanche risk above Behrends Avenue and Thane Road, with the risk becoming elevated to all known slide paths on Monday. Record snowfall in December was followed by more heavy snow during the past week, causing the roofs of some buildings to collapse from the weight of the snowload and other places closing due to concerns of collapse.
Those worries — along with higher risks of flooding and avalanches — were heightened by the arrival of warmer temperatures and rain as the week progressed, prompting the city and Central Council of Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to declare a local disaster for Juneau on Tuesday.
The weather forecast calls for rain through the middle of next week, when colder temperatures may result in snow returning, according to the weather service. An atmospheric river that moved into Southeast Alaska on Thursday evening is causing the conditions resulting in the flood advisory in effect through Saturday.
"Heavy rain will fall on the existing snowpack which may lead to increased runoff and may produce ponding of water in poor drainage areas during the watch time frame," an advisory issued Friday morning states. "Around 1-3 inches of rainfall is possible Friday into Friday night, with another 1-2 inches of rainfall on Saturday."
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356. Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
