Juneau builds an early-warning dashboard for its recurring glacial floods
A public flood-forecasting tool is helping Juneau residents prepare for the glacial outburst floods that have repeatedly damaged homes since 2023.
Juneau, Alaska has been hit by recurring glacial lake outburst floods from the Mendenhall Glacier's basin since 2023, damaging hundreds of homes along the Mendenhall River. In response, the city launched an online forecasting dashboard in 2025 that translates complex glacier and hydrology data into information residents can actually use: when a flood is likely to occur and how high the water will rise on a given property.
Residents say the tool has changed how they prepare. John Lowrey, whose home suffered $150,000 in damage during a 2023 flood, and Mark Miller, who paid $35,000 to repair a garage flooded with 16 inches of water, both now check the dashboard regularly during flood season to decide when to move belongings, deploy sandbags, or evacuate. The city has also installed roughly 6 miles of Hesco barriers, fabric-lined wire-mesh containers filled with sand, along the river, using the dashboard's data to guide where they go.
Environmental scientist Eran Hood said the approach could extend well beyond Juneau. "You could do the same thing with hurricanes, storm surges" and river flooding elsewhere, he said, pointing to accessible, real-time forecasting as a low-cost way to reduce damage from climate-driven disasters that communities can't yet prevent.
Based on reporting by Marina Lopes for Grist. Read the original: https://grist.org/cities/juneau-forecasts-floods-mendenhall-glacier/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
