“All of a sudden trees started to fall in,” said Juneau resident Amanda Arra. “And that’s when I started to get concerned. Tree after tree after tree.”
Condos at 4410 Riverside Drive overhang the Mendenhall River Sunday after flooding on Saturday, Aug. 5 washed away the riverbank.
The flooding in Juneau came from a side basin of Mendenhall Glacier, which acts as a dam for the rain and melted snow that collect in the basin during the spring and summer. The glacier attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year butEventually, the water gushed out from under the glacier and into Mendenhall Lake, from which it flowed down the Mendenhall River.Glacial outburst flooding inundating areas around the Mendenhall Glacier Visitors Center on Aug. 5, 2023.
A corner of a condominium complex hangs over the edge of an eroded bank along the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska, on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. The basin where the rain and meltwater collect was formerly covered by the Suicide Glacier, which used to flow into the Mendenhall Glacier, contributing ice to it. But the Suicide Glacier has retreated as the climate warms, leaving a lake in the basin dammed by the Mendenhall.
The variability in the timing and volume of such floods makes it hard to prepare for them, said Celeste Labedz, an environmental seismologist at the University of Calgary. Chris Winter stands in her home in Juneau on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, after a weekend glacial lake outburst flood resulted in about three inches of water in the raised home, which damaged flooring and insulation.
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