“If you’ve been here a while, this is our annual family reunion,” said Debbie Penrose-Fischer. A few broken chuckles called in response, masking for a moment the rain outside and unease in the room.
Microphone being passed hand to hand, introductions started with neighbors sharing first their names, then their street names. Solemn, heavy nods from one homeowner to the next, each caught in the same frightening and frustrating situation as the other.
Names were announced: Marion Drive, Riverside Drive, Arctic Circle, Long Run. To round out these introductions, a call of encouragement from Penrose-Fischer to those in the most dangerous location: “View Drive you are not forgotten. It doesn’t change it, but just know you’re not forgotten.” With a round of applause, the meeting was underway.
Just weeks away from the annual Mendenhall Glacier Outburst Flood (GLOF), predicted to release sometime between August 5th and 10th, the Juneau Flood Solutions Advocates (JFSA) met at the Mendenhall Valley Library Thursday to share concerns, information, and possible solutions. Unaffiliated with the city or state, this grassroot group is a collection of neighbors gathered to support one another and advocate for themselves through this recurring natural disaster.
The 2024 outburst release of Suicide Basin damaged over 300 homes along the Mendenall River, resulting in a state of emergency that led to the installation of 2.5 miles of steel cage barriers along the perimeter of the river the following year, during which about 50 homes were affected by the flood. This year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) installed 2.72 miles of retaining walls, “armored 1.85 miles of riverbank” against erosion, and constructed a 1,100-foot-long earthen berm to protect Back Loop Road, according to a recent press release. 1,900 homes are marked in the City and Borough of Juneau’s (CBJ’s) Evacuation Zone Map, an increase from last year’s 1,000.
Information went around about the free sandbags at Diamond Park being made available on Saturdays by CBJ and the USACE, with nods and tired smiles meeting tips on best use.
“Anyone who knows someone that’s elderly or has mobility issues, if they need assistance in evacuating, call me directly,” said Penrose-Fischer, who leads the JFSA group. “I’m trying to spearhead some plans for assistance or help. I myself am disabled, my mother is 96, and I’m struggling to figure this out. If there’s anyone else out there, together we can come up with a plan.”
More details and earnest resources were passed around, including information about a neighborhood text group. “We did it in 2024 after the first release, when there was just a minor release, and people were so anxious,” said Penrose-Fischer. “I remember standing with my daughter outside, listening to this rush of water that you couldn’t see anywhere, and that texting group was really powerful. (…) That was really comforting. It’s not meant to take the place of any kind of emergency service. It’s just a way to communicate.”
During what was excusably a relatively bleak meeting among apprehensive neighbors, attendees held onto two glimmers of hope. In particular, Sen. Dan Sullivan’s advancement of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2026 from the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee was met with sighs of relief.
Promising to “cut through red tape and fast-track a permanent engineering solution” in a press release, Sullivan’s support for a fast flood solution came after touring the HESCO barriers alongside JFSA member Sam Hatch. At Thursday’s meeting, Hatch recounted being on tour with Sullivan and asking that environmental requirements be waived for their project and that easier access to federal lands be granted.
“He immediately called his staffer and said some stuff which sounded like we might get a special (emphasis) in the WRDA Bill,” Hatch said of the encounter.
The same press release mentions Sullivan’s desire to “fast-track relief for the Juneau glacial outburst flooding challenge by directing the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to expedite the process and proceed directly to preconstruction planning, engineering, and design.” Currently, the USACE is undergoing a multi-year study of the federal land behind the outburst flood. This study will inform a feasibility study to discuss different mitigation options and solutions, which will likely take a few years. Then, once an option is finally chosen, it will take years to actually implement it.
Those at the meeting expressed anxiety at the thought of having to face 10 or more flood cycles while waiting for this process to come to completion. In the mean-time, the HESCO barriers remain in place, though some at the meeting brought up the possibilities of their failure and resulting flash floods.
“Because I was in a scooter I didn’t get to be there, but when Sam told me I did a happy dance in the car,” said Penrose-Fischer of Hatch’s encounter with Sullivan. “What I’ve experienced when these upper government representatives come and meet with us (…) huge differences can be made.”
As the conversation turned towards long-term solutions, Brian Erickson, homeowner in the floodzone and the vice president of operations at Hecla Greens Creek, came up to give updates about a tunnel solution. Giving earnest compliments to both CBJ and the USACE for their efforts, Erickson shared about having brought folks to the Greens Greek mine to see how his industry’s mining tunneling practices differ from civil engineering tunneling practices. His hope, and JFSA’s call, is that USACE use a tunnel to allow for continual drainage of the basin and prevent further outburst floods.
“I find them (the USACE) to be highly intelligent people and I find them really wanting to get a solution,” Erickson said. “I just think they’re really caught up in the bureaucratic process.”
Erickson mentioned that a 15-by-15-foot tunnel beginning somewhere in the vicinity of Nugget Falls could take around two years, and said he was even part of a conversation brainstorming about an even shorter tunnel that could begin at Nugget Creek that could be finished in 10 or 11 months.
“We don’t do tunneling development (at Hecla),” said Erickson. “We do it for internal purposes, but we’re not fast at it. (…) There are contractors out there that do that work specifically, and some of these guys travel all over the world to do this kind of thing.”
Rightfully so, USACE brought up environmental concerns with the project along with concerns about water erosion along the walls and ceilings of the tunnel. Regarding the latter, Erickson plans to bring USACE representatives to Kensington mine to show how the mining industry deals with water inflow in an area with the same geologic makeup.
As the meeting wrapped up, a call to sign a large banner supporting the mining tunnel solution was made and a few folks offered experience with flash floods.
One neighbor expressed hope that her neighbors would evacuate this year, nervous about the HESCO barriers failing. Warning about how cold the water was, an older gentleman spoke up: “I can attest to that. I had to give up moving stuff out of my basement because my legs were numb up to my knees because I was waiting in that glacier water trying to save stuff.”
Rachel Levy is a Juneau-based photojournalist whose work culminates at the intersections of environmental justice, arts and culture, and sustainable tourism. A 2022 graduate of Harvard University's Environmental Policy program, she is also the director of the award-winning documentary "Hidden in Plain Sight" that exposes the labor exploitation and colonial framework burdening Tanzania's safari industry.
