Outburst

Hundreds of people in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley are living on the front line of a climate change disaster they didn’t see coming. This is Outburst, the story of how glacial outburst flooding has escalated faster than human imagination – and public policies to protect people.

KTOO takes you from the floodwaters to the glacier’s edge to uncover why the annual floods happen, how they got out of control and what can be done to keep Juneau safe.

On a drive through the suburban streets of Mendenhall Valley, “FOR SALE” signs have multiplied along the streets that flood year after year.

In the fourth and final episode of Outburst, KTOO’s Alix Soliman asks residents what they plan to do. Some feel they have no choice but to cut their losses and leave. Others hope to stay, pointing to investments they’ve made into their homes and the tight-knit Juneau community. 

Either way, many Mendenhall Valley residents feel constrained by another major problem facing Juneau: the housing crunch.

Hundreds of people in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley are living on the front line of a climate change disaster they didn’t see coming. This is Outburst, the story of how glacial outburst flooding has escalated faster than human imagination – and public policies to protect people.

KTOO takes you from the floodwaters to the glacier’s edge to uncover why the annual floods happen, how they got out of control and what can be done to keep Juneau safe.

Juneau city officials are looking at everything from dams to explosives to keep Mendenhall Valley residents safe from future glacial outburst floods. 

As Suicide Basin fills up each year, Mendenhall Valley residents are more anxious about the coming flood. They want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to figure out a permanent fix and build it quickly, but the Corps says a long term solution could take years.

The third episode of Outburst looks at how other countries have protected residents from glacial outburst floods and why a local solution is taking so long. 

KTOO’s Alix Soliman takes listeners from a Swiss community facing similar threats to the halls of the U.S. Senate to understand when residents might get a permanent fix – and what that might look like. KTOO reporter Clarise Larson cowrote this episode.

Hundreds of people in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley are living on the front line of a climate change disaster they didn’t see coming. This is Outburst, the story of how glacial outburst flooding has escalated faster than human imagination – and public policies to protect people.

The KTOO newsroom takes you from the floodwaters to the glacier’s edge to uncover why the annual floods happen, how they got out of control and what can be done to keep Juneau safe.

Suicide Basin is a slurry of water, icebergs and silver silt between jagged peaks, and it’s the source of Juneau’s annual glacial outburst flood. The Mendenhall Glacier revealed the basin as its retreat reshapes parts of Juneau’s topography.

Researchers say that understanding the basin and others like it is key to a better knowledge of  future glacial outburst floods. The second episode of Outburst takes us from the past, when early Mendenhall Valley residents were among the first record keepers of area floods, to  the present to hear how scientists are figuring out how big the danger could get. 

KTOO’s Alix Soliman is our guide from the basin’s edge to the Mendenhall River floodplains to understand what we know — and which questions are left unanswered.

Hundreds of people in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley are living on the front line of a climate change disaster they didn’t see coming. This is Outburst, the story of how glacial outburst flooding has escalated faster than human imagination – and public policies to protect people.

The KTOO newsroom and reporter Alix Soliman take you from the floodwaters to the glacier’s edge to uncover why the annual floods happen, how they got out of control and what can be done to keep Juneau safe.

On Aug. 6, 2024, many residents of Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley woke to freezing water rushing into their homes. Glacial outburst floods aren’t new to Juneau, but they’ve escalated dramatically in the last few years.

The first episode of Outburst unravels why so many people were surprised by the sudden severity of recent glacial outburst floods – and why Alaska’s capital city wasn’t prepared.

We’ll examine the science behind glacial outburst floods and how human psychology plays into policy.

KTOO’s Alix Soliman is our guide from flooded basements to assembly chambers and Juneau schoolrooms to understand how a disaster that’s been ramping up for years could shock people. KTOO reporter Clarise Larson cowrote this episode. 

It’s been almost two years since Juneau’s glacial outburst flood got out of hand. 

On that August day, the water level rose swiftly on the Mendenhall River. That wasn’t unusual. Local experts had been tracking water levels in Suicide Basin — the glacial lake high up on Mendenhall Glacier that fills with rain and meltwater every summer — for years and gave ample notice of the annual release.

But unlike in previous years, the water level rose to nearly 15 feet.

“There is no comparison,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Nicole Ferrin told KTOO at the time. “We’re two feet over our last record.”

One unoccupied house crashed into the swollen river. Other homes had their foundations exposed by the eroded riverbank.

The event caught everyone off guard, including those of us in the newsroom. Aside from some erosion and moderate flooding that threatened a few homes along the river, the annual outburst flood was in many ways more of a novelty up to that point.

The next year, the flood was even bigger and the consequences were much more serious. Hundreds of homes flooded when the river crested at 16 feet. 

KTOO Climate and Weather Reporter Anna Canny covered the aftermath of both record-breaking events. Last fall, she proposed a series examining the floods and secured funding from the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism to help make it happen.

Now, as Juneau residents and officials prepare to take on a potential third year of flooding, our newsroom has a new series, Outburst, that takes stock of the evolving threat and efforts to keep residents safe.

Although Anna left Juneau at the beginning of the year to pursue new opportunities, this series would not have been possible without her. 

Climate and Environment Reporter Alix Soliman joined the newsroom in February and dove headfirst into flood reporting, picking up right where Anna left off. She’s reported extensively on the construction of HESCO barriers along sections of the river and preparations ahead of this year’s flood and hosts the series. 

ACEJ’s grant supported this four episode series, as well as outreach efforts to make sure information about the flood gets to the people who need it. Those included a community public safety barbecue this July and a set of maps that show the evolving course of the river, its flood paths and the recession of the Mendenhall Glacier.

Outburst premieres in early August. Find it here at ktoo.org/outburst, on the radio and wherever you get your podcasts.