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View Drive residents prepare for glacial outburst flooding without short-term protection
- Jasz Garrett
- 4 hours ago
- 8 min read
The city is funding the appraisals, title and environmental research to make a buyout offer to homeowners this fall, but not in time for the flood
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
Last year the View Drive neighborhood was promised to have a flood solution, although not their ideal one, by the time of the next outburst.
But a federal buyout program is moving more slowly than the Juneau residents without HESCO barriers had hoped.
The original plan was for the buyout project to be completed within 220 days of its federal funding approval, which was last November. That means buyouts should have been finalized before this August’s expected flood.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service approved an extension for the City and Borough of Juneau until May 1, 2027. The agency’s expectation is for the project to be fully completed by then, including demolition and mediation.
The buyout project is through the NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection Program. It’s a first of its kind for Alaska. The federal government pays 75% while the sponsor — the city — pays 25%. The city’s portion is estimated to be up to $6 million.
The Juneau Assembly voted May 18 to pay for View Drive appraisals, appropriating up to $558,000. The total includes $6,000 per parcel for appraisals and $25,000 per parcel for total project cost estimating.
The Assembly decision allows homeowners and the city to determine the total cost of the buyout project. The city is also funding the title and environmental research. But where local funding comes from afterward is undetermined. In February, the city asked the 18 eligible View Drive homeowners to help pay the 25% cost share.
“We’re going to do this work, we’re going to invest that, make that commitment and then we’ll craft the offers,” said Ryan O’Shaughnessy, the city’s emergency programs manager. “We’ll get to the point where we can say, ‘OK, here’s the all-in number, here’s what you would get as a homeowner, and here’s the amount you would have to pay.’ The money that it takes to get to that point, the city’s going to pay for.”
The May vote doesn’t necessarily mean the program will move forward past these steps toward property demolition. After receiving their cost estimate, a homeowner can still back out of the program.
“Some of us might feel like it’s the right decision, but if we have to go in debt to demolish our house…” said Kim Peterson, a View Drive resident.
The project cost takes into account the estimated values of the homes, demolition costs, remediation of properties, and environmental restoration. The Emergency Watershed Protection program uses the appraised value before the 2024 flood due to a federal disaster declaration that year. NRCS representatives first met with homeowners last July.
If a resident opts in after receiving a cost estimate, the property becomes a hazard and it can never be redeveloped.
“Obviously this buyout program could be beneficial, although we’re looking at having to come up with 25% and unknown costs for tearing the house down,” said Randy Hurtte, another View Drive resident, in his May testimony to the Assembly.
He said he testified to share the plight of his family so people know the ramifications of living in a house that’s flooded regularly. His home has flooded severely for the last three years in a row.
Hurtte added his household was seriously considering the buyout program since “we have no value of the house at this point.”
The program is offered for properties found to be at imminent risk, especially when there is a threat of a future hazard. Glacial lake outburst floods from Suicide Basin have occurred annually since 2011, but risen to record-setting levels each of the past three years.
On June 3, Hurtte and several other View Drive residents gathered at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library to learn more about the Emergency Watershed Protection program.
Outside of unknowns about how the local 25% cost share will be paid, the other challenge for View Drive residents — like hundreds in the Mendenhall Valley — is waiting for answers on a long-term solution to the flooding. Proposed short-, medium- and long-term mitigation measures are expected to be reviewed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters this month.
Before the 2025 glacial outburst, the Army Corps provided more than two miles of HESCO barriers for the city to install along the Mendenhall River. Nearly 300 Valley homes were damaged in the 2024 flood, but were mostly protected by the levees last year. Without protection, some homes on View Drive reported major 2025 flood damage.
This year, the Army Corps paid for and installed about another three miles of levees along the Mendenhall River and armored 1.85 miles of riverbank to prevent erosion.
“I’m glad that all those folks are protected now, because that was scary for those people, but what do we have to look forward to if we don’t do this?” asked Peterson.
Army Corps and city officials state View Drive was found ineligible for HESCO barriers due to soil stability and low home elevations.
Right across the Mendenhall River from View Drive is a 1,100-foot-long earthen berm meant to protect Back Loop Road and downstream areas, according to the Army Corps.
On July 11, Mike Babcock had just finished building a rock and sand berm around his View Drive home.
He said he raised the ground by about three feet around the house and stabilized the riverbank with riprap. Babcock said their house hasn’t flooded in the past, but he took out a loan of around $100,000 for the mitigation measure. A new road built on the property cost another $100,000, and his son also took steps to protect his house.
“Sadly, what happened last year is we lost 40 feet of riverbank that just sloughed off and went down river,” Lara Babcock said. “So that’s how we were affected last year.”
Mike Babcock said it cost him $103,000 last September to add back the riverbank.
“The city wouldn't help us. The Army Corps of Engineers wouldn’t help us and I think it's terrible that they've done all this work right across the bridge, and when I asked them to help us stabilize our bank and protect it from the flood they said, ‘No, you’re on your own,’” Mike Babcock said.
He said if his household took the buyout with an expectation to help pay the 25% cost share, “we would have to get a loan to pay off our mortgage.” He said it was less costly to pursue his own flood mitigation.
“They just decided to protect everybody down there, and everybody up here is on your own,” he said. Mike Babcock added he has been a contractor for 50 years and doesn’t understand the infeasibility reason given by the Army Corps.
“It’s a hard thing because for most of these folks this is their whole everything,” his wife added. “We love it here.”
She said they have lived on View Drive for a decade. Lara Babcock said their approach to the buyout program is different since their house is higher up on the street and hasn’t flooded before. The couple said they are hopeful for a permanent solution and were excited about possible local mining involvement in expediting one.
Along with the dike, Mike Babcock bought a $3,500 pump for potential water inside his house. The Army Corps provided about 40 pumps this year that are being set up along the Mendenhall River’s barriers to prevent seepage, but none were allocated to View Drive.
O’Shaughnessy said the decision was made “to do the most good that we can with the resources that we have.”
“In emergency management we’re faced with the difficult question of allocating resources to do the most good at a given time within a set of circumstances,” he said. “We’re looking at this situation of, ‘This is a public resource,’ and we have a responsibility to the public to do the most good that we can with that resource.”
O’Shaughnessy added without barriers, the pumps would likely be ineffective for the neighborhood due to the volume of water. He said the neighborhood was provided with sandbags.
Bob Winters’ heightened house could be seen peeking through the spruce trees down the street from the Babcocks.
“We didn’t use to be able to see his house,” Lara Babcock said.
Winters, like other View Drive residents, has taken measures into his own hands.
Last year, Carol and Don Habeger, with the help of two neighboring households, built a rock berm surrounding their properties at the end of View Drive. But the 2025 flood with a Mendenhall River record crest of 16.65 feet seeped underneath.
Winters said his home is one of only two in the Mendenhall Valley that have been raised to fight the flood. The other home elevation was by Sam Hatch on Meander Way.
Winters built his house in 1981 and said he recalls flooding in the garage every year since then. He said when it was built and permitted, his house was not in the floodplain.
“Even up to 2014, I was the only one that got wet,” Winters said, adding he and his wife lost furniture and had to do extensive repairs following that flood.
He said it cost about $2.4 million to raise his house a total of three times. The house has now been raised in total by nine feet and the garage by 12 feet.
The first time was in 2015 after the flood that impacted View Drive. The house was raised three feet and the garage by six feet. In 2023, he experienced flooding again, so in 2024, Winters raised the house by two more feet.
“Once you flood it’s like a four-month process by the time you dry everything out underneath, get everything torn out,” he said. “You've got to empty all the rooms out, take all the carpeting out, order the flooring, wait for it to get in, wait for somebody that can put it in for you. You’re basically four months without a kitchen, without floors, with fans going the full time. Everything is damp.”
In 2025, his house flooded again, leading to his decision to elevate once more. The garage was raised six feet and the house by four this year.
“It irritates me to see the Corps and the city say the HESCOs aren’t causing any problem upstream,” he said.
Winters said he is worried about the earthen berm across the road, along with the downstream levees and riprap, causing the water to rise in his neighborhood.
But he said since he’s finished the home elevation ahead of the 2026 flood, he no longer feels as stressed.
“It’s like I’m in a treehouse,” he said, looking over the edge of his elevated porch.
The outside walls also have an ice and water shield. Flood vents were installed to allow water to come and go freely.
Winters said he declined the buyout program because he’s already invested too much into his house to abandon it at a personal loss.
“I’m almost 80,” he added. “So last thing we want to do is move.”
In an interview Thursday, O’Shaughnessy said appraisals and environmental assessments are ongoing. He said the city’s hired contractor started scheduling appraisals with homeowners.
“I believe that the only piece that we might still be in procurement on is the technical appraisal review,” O’Shaughnessy said.
He said nearly all 18 homeowners eligible for the buyout program requested appraisals. O’Shaughnessy said the two homeowners who declined have experienced flooding in the past.
He encouraged evacuation for homeowners when Suicide Basin begins to release. New city maps this year show 1,900 homes in the evacuation zone.
The next update on the buyout program will be given at the scheduled Assembly Committee of the Whole meeting on Aug. 31.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
