Residents in Alaska’s capital cleared out waterlogged homes on Wednesday after a lake dammed by the picturesque Mendenhall Glacier gave way, causing the worst flooding in Juneau yet from what has become a yearly phenomenon.
At least 100 homes and some businesses were damaged by rapidly rising floodwaters that crested early on Tuesday, according to initial estimates. In some areas, cars floated in chest-high water as people scrambled to evacuate. The waters receded by Wednesday, and the river level was falling.
The flooding happened because a smaller glacier nearby had retreated – a casualty of the warming climate – and left a basin that fills with rainwater and snowmelt each summer. When the water creates enough pressure, as happened this week, it forces its way under or around the ice dam created by the Mendenhall Glacier, enters Mendenhall Lake and eventually makes its way to the Mendenhall River.
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