Alaskans recount escapes after a record-breaking glacial outburst flood hits Juneau

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

For the second year in a row, there's been record breaking flooding in Juneau, Alaska. It comes from a melting glacier. Here's Anna Canny with member station KTOO.

ANNA CANNY, BYLINE: A sump pump is working nonstop to drain water out of Weston Holland's basement apartment in Juneau's Mendenhall Valley. Early in the morning on Tuesday, he woke to find water on the floor and went to investigate.

WESTON HOLLAND: And in the process of doing that, the front door have this look of water coming inside like the Titanic.

CANNY: Holland says the door burst open, and a wall of water submerged him up to his chest. He had to wade through it to evacuate his wife and their four sons.

HOLLAND: The 10 minutes I was in and it was pretty much hypothermia started setting in. The pain in my toes was bad.

CANNY: And the water was ice cold because it came from the Mendenhall Glacier just outside of town. About a decade ago, the glacier's rapid retreat fueled by human caused climate change created a glacial lake. That lake releases water into the Mendenhall River every year. But there didn't used to be catastrophic flooding until last year, when billions of gallons of water released very quickly, and the city saw its worst flooding ever. The surging river swept away two houses. This year's damage was more widespread, and in many places, more severe.

BETH WELDON: Instead of a few inches in people's houses, they had feet in people's houses.

CANNY: That's Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon. She toured neighborhoods like the Holland's, which had never seen flooding like this before. City officials estimate the flood damaged at least 100 houses.

WELDON: We're already talking about what can we do to prevent this? 'Cause it was a foot higher than last year's, ironically on the same date, and we can't have this an annual thing.

CANNY: Glacier scientists say they still don't know why the water took a different path this year or why it drained so quickly. But they say as long as the glacial lake exists, the risk of damaging floods will be there.

For NPR news, I'm Anna Canny in Juneau. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.