Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski toured the Juneau neighborhoods that experienced record-breaking flooding earlier this week.
On Wednesday, they met with residents who are beginning to recover and assess the damage, like Janet Coffin. When they arrived, water was gushing from a tube outside of her house.
The water was being pulled from the flooded crawl space of her home on Killewich Drive.
The flood happens every year, but the past two years have been unprecedented. This year’s flood happened almost exactly a year after the last catastrophic event.
Coffin didn’t think it could get worse from last year.
“When it burst last year, it only went from the curb six feet into the yard and driveway,” she said.
But it was worse. This year, it flooded her crawlspace and car and soaked everything in her garage. On the tour of other houses though, some people had it much worse. The city estimates at least 100 homes and buildings were damaged.
On Emily Way, it looked like everyone in the neighborhood was having a garage sale. Clothes, furniture and books were splayed out in the yards. But, a closer look revealed that the pages were wet and the clothes were covered in silt.
The flooding started due to the rapid retreat of the Mendenhall Glacier, fueled by human-caused climate change.
Each year, a basin behind the glacier fills with rain and meltwater before bursting downstream into the Mendenhall Lake and River. Last year’s flood pushed the Mendenhall River to nearly 15 feet. This year, the river rose even higher, setting a new record of 15.99 feet early Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Juneau Assembly passed a resolution to declare the flood a local emergency. Dunleavy swiftly followed with a state declaration.
During the tour on Wednesday, he said the quick turnaround of the declaration means recovery money at the state level is already on its way.
“It allows us, over the next 30 days, to do whatever we can in terms of regulation, and suspension to help expedite clean up,” he said. “It also frees up money from the state’s coffers to help out.”
And the state’s declaration may draw attention from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Murkowski said though this year’s flood in Juneau is a wake-up call for Alaska, FEMA aid is already stretched thin nationwide.
“As devastating as this is for many families here, we have disasters all over the country that federal agencies are looking at and trying to address at the same time that this is unfolding,” she said.
But, she said this can’t keep happening. It’s going to take a collaborative effort between the city, state and federal government to find ways to prevent a disaster of this magnitude from happening again.
“We don’t want the people of Juneau to be dreading Aug. 5 and 6 every year,” she said. “That’s not the way to move forward.”
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska continues to provide emergency shelters to tribal members displaced by the flooding.
Kus.een Jackie Pata with the tribe said it’s important that people support one another during this time.
“Yesterday, it was emotional for everybody, and it’s a crisis that people are dealing with,” she said. “We want to take care of them physically as well with their body and soul.”
Other resources like free sump pumps, debris cleanup, distress hotlines and food distribution are also available.
KTOO’s Anna Canny contributed to this report.
