Flood water seeps through HESCO barriers on Killewich Drive on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson\/KTOO)<\/p>\n
The Juneau Assembly passed a resolution<\/a> Thursday declaring a local emergency in anticipation of the annual glacial outburst flood expected later this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since the catastrophic 2024 flood impacted around 300 homes in the Mendenhall Valley, the city has been operating under an ongoing emergency due to the continued threat to the community. Last year, the city issued<\/a> a preemptive disaster declaration nearly a week before the record-breaking flood<\/a> on Aug. 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n This summer\u2019s declaration authorizes the city to implement emergency orders necessary to protect the safety of residents. The declaration includes a request for state assistance with emergency permitting in and around the Mendenhall River.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jeremy Zidek is a spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. He told KTOO it\u2019s unusual to declare disasters before there is damage, but the governor did so last year in case a large response to the 2025 flood became necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese pre-disaster declarations aren\u2019t typical, but unique circumstances sometimes require some unique solutions,\u201d Zidek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zidek said the city\u2019s preemptive declaration is a proactive approach to an unusually predictable flood.\u00a0<\/p>\n The first stretch of the flood wall that the city built last summer mostly held up, and just a couple of dozen homes flooded in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n The resolution passed at a special Assembly meeting without discussion and remains in effect for 180 days \u2014 through Dec.15, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flood water seeps through HESCO barriers on Killewich Drive on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson\/KTOO)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[307510,63592,192,52677,14897,301299,307511,55793,307512,79],"class_list":["post-713273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alaska-division-of-homeland-security-and-emergency-management","tag-city-and-borough-of-juneau","tag-environment","tag-glacial-outburst-flood","tag-jeremy-zidek","tag-juneau-assembly","tag-juneau-flood","tag-mendenhall-valley","tag-preemptive-disaster-declaration","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}