Barriers prevent severe flooding in Alaska capital after glacier outburst | Alaska

Authorities, newly established river barriers, a large rainwater and snow melting of an ice dam on the nearby Mentenhall glacier, on Wednesday, prevents record levels and widespread damage at record levels in the capital of Alaska.

The Mentenhall River came together in a few streets after the hill in the early hours of the day and in some gardens in Juneau, and high water was expected to continue for hours. However, many calm in the flood area were evacuated before the peak water levels, and when about 300 houses were flooded, there were no damage reports similar to the last two summer.

Müdür Katie Koester, Director of Juneau City, said in a press conference. “Without them, we would have hundreds and hundreds of floods.”

On Tuesday morning, the authorities confirmed that the water started to escape from the ice dam and the floods are expected on Wednesday. Some Juneau residents in the Taşkın region had already evacuated by saying, “Waiting, evacuating tonight” as the authorities intensified their warnings on Tuesday.

National Weather Service (NWS) Office in Juneau He said in an x post On Tuesday, they predicted that local hydrologists set the flood forecasts of local hydrologists and that the river would be more than 16FT on Wednesday morning.

NWS and Nicole Ferrin said that during a briefing on Tuesday, the flood warning was published after “too much analysis, but that the calculations were complex with the rainfall that caused the lake and the river to increase significantly, and that a lower ice release took place.

“This will be a new record based on all the information we have, Fer Ferrin said, According to the Juneau Empire.

City officials responded to concerns from the property owners this year by working with the state, federal and tribal assets to establish a temporary levee along about 2.5 miles (4km) to prevent widespread floods. Emergency Manager Ryan O’s Hazelnessy said that 10,000 “Hesco” obstacles are actually giant, reinforced sandbags.

A little water infiltrated the gardens through drains established under the barriers. Authorities, at other points, the trees floating down the river hit and damage the obstacles, he said. However, the reinforced wall was largely kept.

The Mentenhall glacier fills a large valley in the north of Juneau and forms an ice dam for a molten water lake that fills the suicide basin. Since 2011, the explosions from depression have been poured into Lake Mindenhall and every year, it goes down the river towards Juneau.

However, the annual Mentenhall Glacial Lake explosion flood, climate change.

National Ocean and Atmospheric Association (Noaa) said that Alaska has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the United States in the last few decades.

In the last century, the average annual temperature of Alaska increased by 3.1F and the general trend continues to increase. According to data NOAA’s national environmental information centers.

Scientists connected the withdrawing, melting and thinning of the glaciers in the last century to the world’s heating climate. Alaska’s glaciers The fastest melting glaciers in the world And since the end of the 1980s, in a steep decline, Alaska Climate Science Center.

Alaska Climate Evaluation and Policy Center Alaska Climate Specialist Juneau, a record amount of water in water that threatens Rick Thoman, Noaa reported: “Without climate change, there is no reason to think that this will be in the mentenhall glacier, then on the lake and down.”

A explosion in August 2023 sent a record amount of water to Lake Mindenhall and Mentenhall River, areas that have not been flooded before, He said the NWS Office in Juneau At that time, it would cause significant erosion.

The Mentenhall Glacier is about 12 miles from Juneau and is considered a popular tourist attraction center. Juneau, Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 800 miles (1,300km) from Anchorage, who had to gather to discuss the war in Ukraine on Friday.

The flood from the glacier has become an annual concern for almost 15 years, and in recent years it sweeps the houses and sank hundreds of houses.

He is accused of withdrawing a smaller glacier near Mentenhall Glacier, the wounded of the heating climate, and left a basin that filled with rainwater and snow melting every spring and summer.

When the water creates enough pressure, it forces its path around or around the ice dam created by the blue ice mentenhall glacier.

Mentenhall was originally called Sitaantagu (üzeri glacier behind the town ”) or AAK’WTAAaxit (the glacier behind the small lake”) by Tlingit Indians), but later called AUKE (AUK) for the AUK Kwaan band of the innate tlingit Indians. In 1892, Thomas Corwin Mentenhall, who helped to determine the boundary between Canada and Alaska, was renamed in 1892. It is considered the remnant of the small glacial age, which lasted until the middle of the 18th century and is currently decreasing about 100-150FT (30-45 meters) a year.

Associated Press contributed to reporting