Juneau Assembly to consider extending glacial flood emergency 180 days into 2027

The Juneau Assembly will consider Monday a resolution extending the city's disaster emergency for the annual glacial lake outburst flood from Suicide Basin, also called Kʼóox Ḵaadí Basin, for another 180 days, according to the meeting packet.

The Assembly declared the current emergency June 18, and that extension runs through Dec. 15. The new resolution sits on the consent agenda, and the city manager recommends adopting it. The agenda lets members of the public and the Assembly ask for changes to consent items.

The resolution states that state assistance is needed to protect life and property, prepare for emergency operations and reduce the severity of the next flood. It authorizes the city manager to issue orders to protect residents' health and safety. It names the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Alaska Southeast as partners in planning for 2027 outburst floods. A copy would be filed with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

The resolution says the basin, on the Mendenhall Glacier, has released outburst floods since 2011, with record flood events in August 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The city has operated under an ongoing emergency since August 2024, when the Mendenhall River peaked at 15.99 feet and flooded more than 300 homes, according to the resolution. The city then installed a first phase of HESCO flood barriers along the river. The August 2025 flood set a new record at 16.65 feet. The first phase was then repaired and raised, and a second phase was installed along the rest of the river.

This year's Aug. 13 release peaked at 14.7 feet, below 2025's record. A second release on Oct. 2 peaked at 10.18 feet, higher than the 9.6-foot second release in September 2025. The resolution says the barriers and other protective measures held against both of this year's releases.

In a report recorded in minutes of the Aug. 17 Assembly meeting, Emergency Programs Manager Ryan O'Shaughnessy attributed the lower August crest in part to a slow release and a dry summer. Of 186 homes assessed, 10 had affected-level damage and two had minor damage, mostly around Meander Bend and View Drive.

"Our community is strong and resourceful, but what we are facing is unprecedented," Mayor Beth Weldon said in a March city statement on work with the Army Corps.

The resolution calls work with the federal delegation and the Army Corps essential to both short-term flood fighting and a long-term emergency water conveyance prototype. A permanent fix remains further out: a bond vote on permanent flood protection could not reach voters until October 2027, the city manager has said, because the Army Corps does not expect a cost estimate until then.