Brian O'Shaughnessy
17:50 - 18:24
"in the event of a HESCO failure, folks would only have minutes before the area could be inundated. This could potentially be a truly massive amount of water coming through... folks would not have time to evacuate. That flash flood warning product would contain the instructions of shelter in place."
“in the event of a HESCO failure, folks would only have minutes before the area could be inundated. This could potentially be a truly massive amount of water coming through... folks would not have time to evacuate. That flash flood warning product would contain the instructions of shelter in place.”
- Speaker
- Brian O'Shaughnessy
- Timestamp
- 17:50 – 18:24
- Community
- Alaska News
- Location
- Juneau
- Captured at
- August 12, 2026
From the transcript
In the event of a HESCO failure, like I said, we are tremendously confident in the infrastructure that's been put in place through all of our partnerships, but in the event of a HESCO failure, folks would only have minutes before the area could be inundated. This could potentially be a truly massive amount of water coming through, and, and we would work with the Weather Service to ensure that flash flood warning was issued. But folks would not have time to evacuate. That flash flood warning product would contain the instructions of shelter in place. Many of the homes in the area are only one story.
Related Coverage
Juneau asks Mendenhall Lake evacuation zone residents to leave by 3 p.m.
Unified Command asked residents of roughly 2,000 Mendenhall Valley homes, an estimated 5,000 people, to finish evacuating by 3 p.m. Wednesday as the National Weather Service forecasts a 16.1- to 16.6-foot crest Thursday morning. Officials said a HESCO barrier failure would leave minutes to react.
by Melinda Communities.News24m ago3 min readAI