Juneau: July 9, 2026 CBJ Media Availability

About the HESCO structure. I'm not sure if this is a question for John or for Ryan O'Shaughnessy. Alex Solomon of KTOO asks, what are the potential breach points that were considered— I'm speaking for you a little bit, Alex— in the HESCO wall that were considered as part of the evacuation mapping?

Yeah, that's a great question. I'll take a first pass at that, and then, John, if you have anything to add. So we looked at a number of different potential breach points as well as like a full-on no HESCO scenario for our evacuation mapping.

I think that it's really important to note that we have a tremendous amount of confidence in the HESCO system. We saw it perform relatively well last year and we're very confident for this year, but the entire system is fragile. And that's really why we want everyone in the evacuation area to heed that advisory and to evacuate. These are resilient structures. We do have a little bit of testing with them, but they are essentially sandbags, right?

And so the entire— I would say that the entire system is somewhat fragile to tree strikes and things like that. So we really want to encourage folks to evacuate. For that worst-case scenario.

Yeah, just to add to that, that's really good characterization, Ryan. The breach locations that were chosen are the potential high-impact areas. And so tree strikes and direct, you know, even though we fortified these areas, the direct impacts at the 90-degree corners just effectively to, you know, to prepare for the worst-case scenario. As Ryan said, these are sandbags, they are temporary measures. We have had extreme— we have a lot of confidence in them, we've had very good success with them, but we got to remember they are still temporary measures.

And as we saw last year, fortunately above the waterline, but a tree completely blew up the barriers behind the Field House very quickly, very easily. So we do need to be prepared for those events. So be careful. And that's also why we're requesting evacuation because they are temporary and we don't know what, you know, we don't know what force might crack one open.

Thanks, John. It sounds like, you know, we've got a lot of great minds and resources putting together these temporary measures, but we need to plan for every risk and keep our community safe. And it's also the reason why I think all agencies on this call are, are diligently working together to try and find an enduring solution. You know, we've— they've done great work to keep us safe in the near term because we— another flood event is coming in just a few weeks, but we haven't— are not losing focus on an enduring solution and other options as well. Okay, we have 2 last questions before we wrap up.

In terms of— question from Alex Solomon on HESCO cost. The last estimate, it sounds like there's been different estimates that have been shared. Most recently, $14.8 million from the City and Borough of Juneau and $35 million from the Army Corps. And I just want to clarify a little bit, we're talking about 2026 HESCO costs. And today, I'm not sure who shared it, but it sounds like the $45 million was shared as a HESCO cost.

I guess the question is, is that an updated estimate and where were there cost savings for HESCO costs this year? So I think I might invite I'm going to invite both John Bohan and Darrell Downing to speak to the question on HESCO costs.

Darrell, it looks like you came off mic first, so I'll let you lead. Sure, thanks, Ashley. So from the Corps of Engineers Phase 2 project, our cost is still estimated at approximately $35 million. As we shared during the last flood panel. So, right now, we're not anticipating any additional costs or savings at this point.

I'll turn it over to John Bohan. Thanks, Darrell. I can say that we will be under the $14.8 million for the Phase 1 project. I can't say whether it's $13.5 or $14 million that We're still finishing cleanup and we have some final detailed work to do. And so I don't have a final number at this point, but it will be less than $14.8 million.

Thanks, John. Corinne Smith is asking if we can hear more from Aaron Jacobs at the National Weather Service on the forecast and monitoring the basin and if— and any new tools this year that are helping in that monitoring. Yeah, totally. I can do that. If actually, if you could bring up the monitoring page.

So this year, in conjunction with the USGS, we were able to improve our monitoring so we have more redundant information. And one of that more redundant information is a camera that looks over the overflow channel. So from the monitoring page, if you go to latest images, and now you will see this overflow channel to the right. And so this is a new camera for us so we can see when water is starting to go over this overflow channel.. And so this gives us better situational awareness when that is taking place.

And also when that subglacial release takes place, we will start seeing water levels going down from this image. And then we can really hone in on when the timing of that subglacial release has started. Also, some of the tools that we are also gaining some other redundancy in additional laser information from the USGS. So in case the primary one goes down or we're having some issues, we can backup, we can use a backup one. USGS is having some transmission issues with some of the laser data, but we are trying to work through that at this time, and we are updating the monitoring page as much as possible.

As far as the forecast, we are very— the science team within the Weather Service and USGS and university, we are kind of with the volume estimate, we're going to be very close to the same volume as last year, just due to the conditions of the lower end of the overflow channel to less icebergs in the basin, and then the lateral expansion of the basin. So we're going to see a very similar volume estimate that we're anticipating, maybe a little bit of an increase, but very similar to last year. And so we are also anticipating a flood if it releases at a full basin capacity, something very similar to last year, to maybe a little bit lower, but still a major flooding event. And we still need to evaluate the effects effects of this cabin event that Ashley's showing on the main front of the basin right now and how that affected our anticipation of the volume that goes into that. And you can see the scenario forecast on the monitoring page to be aware of if a release was to take place right now, what would the flooding event look like?

So as Ashley's shown right here, this is what it would show currently if the basin was to release right now, it would be just right under a major flood stage. So hopefully that answered that question, and provide any more additional details, we can do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Aaron. And then last question from Jas Garrett at the Juneau Independent. I might invite Jeremy Zydak from DMVA to join us. Has the city had any response from the state about its proactive emergency declaration? And Ryan, it looks like you came off mic, so if you want to jump in first and then we'll pass it to Jeremy.

Sure, yeah, thanks, Ashley. So I just wanted to share a little bit about the effect of emergency declarations, and the CBJ is currently operating under an emergency declaration, and the intent and the purpose of that is to utilize resources that wouldn't be available to us as a local government ordinarily.

Once the state resources you know, primarily the drone monitoring and public assistance support and those kinds of things come into play, the CBJ will be requesting that the Governor also declare a state disaster. So that is, we're working really closely with the SEOC to move that process along, and at this point, all indications that we've received are that the state will very seriously consider a pre-event disaster declaration again. Jeremy?

Yeah, can you hear me all right?

Yes, we got you. So Jeremy Zedek, Public Information Officer with the State of Alaska's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. And, you know, we have received the request from the city Borough of Juneau for a state disaster declaration. Um, our state statutes— there's really two reasons we're kind of waiting on that request. One, our state statutes require that this disaster is imminent, so we're working very closely with CBJ and the National Weather Service to understand when this event will be an imminent event.

We want to make sure that we are complying with those those state requirements. And then another reason is when we declare a state disaster, um, that activates the governor's emergency powers for 30 days initially, and then we have to go to the legislature and seek a continuation of those emergency powers. And if we do that too early and CBJ is still very much in an emergency response phase, and we're assisting them. We don't want— we would like that 30-day window to be a little bit longer during the disaster event. So we're going to look for that determination that it's imminent, and then we can declare it.

In addition, FEMA also has requirements in the 30-day window, which we can seek an extension for, but again, we don't want to do that.

In a time when we're actively responding to the disaster. It just makes things a little bit cleaner for us. So we've been very— we've been continuing to work with CBJ and the other partners down there. Our director, Brian Fisher, and our ops— one of our ops managers, Jen Royer, who was there last year, traveled down to Juneau to participate in some planning, to talk to local leadership, and talk to the emergency managers there. We're going to have our state emergency operations center on Hyden awareness.

So state emergency managers are, are really leaning forward and working with City, Borough, Juneau, and the other emergency managers and folks there that are responding to this event., and we'll continue to do so.

Thank you so much, Jeremy. Um, it's 10:59, so I'm going to wrap up quickly just with a big thank you again to our members of the media for participating and for your wonderful questions. If you have additional questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to myself or Ryan O'Shaughnessy. Um, and for, for those tuning in online, please send your questions to [email protected]. That's a great way for us to centralize all those questions and get them out to the right person.

As our friends at the Army Corps shared, there is a wonderful event happening this Saturday, July 11th, where all of these subject matter experts will be on site to talk you through the evacuation maps, to show you how exactly the best way to stack sandbags at your home, to talk about what's happening with it. We can look at the pump maps together, so please join us this Saturday, July 11th, from 11 to 3 at Diamond Park. I also want to note that we will be standing up the flood hotline again this year much earlier than we did last year. We're hoping to have it online next week, and we'll send information out about that. That's a great way for folks that have sort of a random, a non-emergency question about the flood, 2026 flooding, to get someone on the phone and get that question answered.

And again, we'll send information about the hotline here soon. Thank you, Ryan, for putting in the chat a reminder to sign up for emergency alerts. You can actually text CBJ to 382— oh goodness, I lost it. Excuse me, to 38276 to sign up for to sign up or go to our website to sign up there as well. And lastly, I just want to thank all of our agency partners for joining us today, for the many who shared information and also those that were on standby to answer questions and absolutely have a role in this event, including U.S. Coast Guard Sector Southeast, the American Red Cross, who's leading our sheltering efforts, and the Juneau Police Department, and of course the many community groups and volunteers that are working behind the scenes to support all of these agencies and help protect their neighbors as well.

Thank you all. With that, I'll go ahead and close out, and thank you all for being here.