Some residents evacuating flood zone, some staying to await peak river levels on Wednesday morning
- Mark Sabbatini
- Aug 12, 2025
- 5 min read
People planning to stay in homes overnight say they have backup plans if an unexpected level of flooding occurs
This is a developing story.
By Mark Sabbatini and Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
Greg Tingey was getting his rigid inflatable boat ready for use as the flooded Mendenhall River continued rising on Tuesday afternoon, but he said he wasn’t planning for his family to evacuate their home on Rivercourt Way before the river reaches major flood status on Wednesday morning.
Tingey has in the house about a block from the river for the past eight years. He said it suffered only minor flood intrusion during last year’s flood, and sandbags and other protection are set up in case this year’s river level surpasses last year’s record of 15.99 feet, as experts predict. The raft allows Tingey to keep an eye on neighbors closer to the river who suffered major damage last year.
"I was examining the damage early in the morning last year, just paddling the raft up and down the streets," he said.
See also: Mendenhall River at moderate flood stage; crest of 16.6 feet expected by mid-afternoon Wednesday
Tingey said he is keeping his vehicles elsewhere for safety. He and the four other family members will stay with relatives living in another part of town outside the flood zone if necessary. He said he’s hopeful a semipermanent levee of HESCO barriers installed since last year provides the protection experts say it will, but there’s also an inevitable wariness that something could go wrong.
"I think it's going through everyone's minds because you want to trust what the Army Corps of Engineers comes up with, but in the back of your mind you’ve also got to be prepared in case of failure because, in my mind, this could divert water elsewhere and drop the water in here," he said. "We could have water in here a lot longer than we usually do."
Ken Arnold also lives on Rivercourt Way, and isn’t entirely sure about evacuating yet. Last year, his family’s house had minor flooding, and this year he’s hoping the sandbags do the trick and the barriers don’t fail.
“It is what it is,” Arnold said. “Can’t do anything about it, so we try not to worry too much.”
City officials distributed fliers to nearly 900 homes on Monday, and planned to contact a couple hundred more residents Tuesday morning, advising occupants to evacuate their residences when a glacial outburst flood from Suicide Basin occurred.
The outburst flood that officials say began Monday afternoon and was detected at 9:21 a.m. Tuesday is expected to crest at 16.6 feet sometime between 8 a.m. and noon Wednesday.
An emergency evacuation shelter for residents has been set up at the former Floyd Dryden school building, but as of about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday only a few camper RVs were in the parking lot along with a handful of other vehicles belonging to workers and volunteers setting up the shelter.
Joe and Melinda Liddle stopped by the shelter at about 5:30 p.m. to get information about staying there if they ultimately decide to rather than their home on Rivercourt Way — but that decision was still up in the air.
"We don’t know — we’re debating," he said. "I think we change our positions every 10 minutes or so."
The school is also where people evacuated from Mendenhall Campground are being sent to, said Brenden Beard, a camp host helping staff a trailer in the parking lot where information fliers were being distributed. He said there were only three RVs at the campground, with no people in tents, when the evacuation occurred Tuesday, but at least a couple more arrivals are expected Tuesday evening.
"Anyone else who has a reservation will be steered over here," he said.
Streets near Tingey’s home were mostly quiet on Tuesday afternoon, with one resident living next to the HESCO barriers driving away accompanied by friends in a second vehicle. But Josh and Stacey Lacey, walking from their home on Meander Way to check on the Mendenhall River level shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday, said there has been more traffic in the neighborhood during the day.
Local emergency officials are asking people living outside the area not to visit flood areas and signs declaring the streets were for "local traffic only" are posted at major intersections. Assistant Fire Chief Sam Russell said more stringent checks will be made as the flood risk in neighborhoods becomes more serious.
Josh Lacey said they moved into their home shortly before last year’s record flood, which caused only minor flooding to the garage since his house is on an elevated site. The couple said they live in a two-story house and therefore should be safe even if a major flood occurs, but they can also stay with friends if it becomes necessary to evacuate their home.
As the couple stood behind the HESCO barriers watching the Mendenhall River — which passed the moderate flood level of 10 feet at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday — a couple of trees swept away by the rising currents drifted past. Josh Lacey said he isn’t sure yet what he thinks about the barriers.
"Our only concern is last year these weren't here and this is where everything drained," he said. That drainage was why his home didn’t see significant flooding and "now this is going to block that."
Eddie Petrie and his daughter Victoria were filling up sandbags at Dimond Park late Tuesday evening. They’ve been doing their preparations slowly over the past couple of months, and have recently added plastic sheeting up the exterior walls of their Taku Boulevard residence. The pair were hopeful that the timing of the peak might provide a little relief.
“Hopefully since that tide changed now, the tide’s going back out, that'll give us some relief,” Petrie said.
Victoria Petrie added that she “just doesn’t want my house to be gone.”
Eddie Petrie is not planning to immediately evacuate the flood zone. Instead, the rest of his family will go to a friend’s house while he stays behind. Petrie said he hopes the water doesn’t get too close to his property and he will evacuate if the flood approaches his driveway.
Despite the imminent possibility of catastrophic flooding, the pair remained optimistic, especially with the bout of sunny weather.
“We’re just getting a tan and building muscle for no reason,” Petrie said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306. Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
