Dozens of Juneau residents in the glacial outburst flood zone filed into the Mendenhall Valley library on Saturday afternoon to learn how to prepare for flooding expected later this summer.
Members of the Juneau Lions Club walked residents through the new flood map website made by UAS researchers and handed out weather alert radios. Local insurance providers talked about how FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) works. The program is still operating, but that might change given the Trump administration’s past statements about weakening the agency.
Reuben Willis, a State Farm insurance agent in Juneau, explained that the price for NFIP is based on FEMA’s risk zone maps, last updated in 2020. He recommended that homeowners lock in lower pricing before FEMA updates the city’s maps again.
“If they change your zone and put you in a higher-risk zone, which would allow them to require us to charge a higher premium, if you purchased the policy you’re grandfathered in,” Willis said.
He added that if homeowners with NFIP policies sell their place in the future, that grandfathered price transfers to the new owners. A new policy takes 30 days to go into effect, so Willis said Mendenhall Valley homeowners should consider applying now to protect their assets from potential flooding this year. Catastrophic floods hit neighborhoods during the first week of August the past two years.
Elizabeth Figus, a Valley resident whose home on View Drive flooded in 2023 and 2024, said that NFIP made a huge difference for her financially and shared tips for how to document losses after a flood.
“If you are feeling stressed out after a flood, you might be urged to just throw stuff away,” Figus said.
But instead of tossing damaged property, she recommends taking photos of everything before moving it and cataloging each item — even small things like cleaning supplies.
Laird Jones has lived in the Valley since 1982. His place is on Skywood Lane, near the library. He said his home was spared during last year’s record-breaking 16-foot flood, but that could change if a future flood breaches 17 feet. Last year, he watched the water level rise too close for comfort.
“The ditch was full of water, and we had a salmon swimming by in the ditch,” he said.
He said FEMA maps put his home in one of the lower-risk zones, so when he got a quote for flood insurance, it was just under $360 per year.
Insurance providers said that’s the base price for the program, but it can be around $2,000 for those in higher-risk zones. The standard policy covers $250,000 for residential structures and $100,000 for belongings inside.
In the parking lot behind Thunder Mountain Middle School, staff from the city and Tlingit and Haida, along with a handful of volunteers, filled free sandbags for residents to stack against their homes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers donated the bags, and the city and tribe evenly split the cost of the sand — about $18,000. Another sandbag event will take place on June 14. Tlingit and Haida will also host Community Emergency Response Team trainings on June 14, 21 and 28.
Anton Rieselbach, a program associate at the Juneau Economic Development Council, attended the event to talk with people about a survey to capture how the 2024 flood affected the community.
“We want to figure out the gap between the amount of help that’s been given to flood victims and the amount of impact that they actually incurred,” Rieselbach said. “We also want to try to figure out some of the social impacts of the flooding — for example, is this flooding causing people to try to leave Juneau in higher numbers than usual? Is it causing people to have negative mental health experiences or any other health issues?”
He said getting a comprehensive picture of the issue will help inform future flood responses. So far, roughly 60 people have responded to the mail-in survey, and Rieselbach said the council is aiming to get 150 responses by the end of the month.
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