The danger is over for residents of Juneau, the Alaska capital. He was urged to evacuate on August 13th as the nearby Mendenhall River.
The emergency barriers built to protect Mendenhall Valley and Juneau, a city of Alaskan Panhandle of about 32,000, have been successful, USA Today reported. Most of the Juneau residents live in the valley.
A two-mile Hesco barrier was installed along the river in June to mitigate summer flooding from the Mendenhall Glacier. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, glacial flooding is driven by climate change.
The threat of flooding did not affect the planned summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was scheduled for August 15th at a military base near Anchorage, more than 500 miles away.
What happens when a melted glacier causes flooding?
This is how the explosion of glaciales sent water towards Mendenhall Valley, where Juneau’s threatened.
Mendenhall Glacier is an ice river 12 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. It travels from Juneau Ice Field in the Mendenhall Valley Coast Mountains to Lake Mendenhall, about 12 miles from Juneau.
The glacier serves as a dam in a nearby suicide basin. A lake-sized bowl that holds rainwater and annual snowmelt. When a glacier melts, it releases a large amount of water from the basin, known as a glacier explosion. That water reached Lake Mendenhall after a day or two, then entered the river and could have flooded Juneau.
Large flooding was prevented
According to the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center, the amount of flooding in Mendenhall Valley was determined by:
The amount of water in the suicide basin.
The speed at which water flows beneath the Mendenhall Glacier and through Lake Mendenhall.
How to increase your Mendenhall Lake level.
The barrier prevented flooding, but city officials asked evacuated residents to stay outside the area until they were notified that they were safe to return. USA Today reported that water levels are projected to drop rapidly following the summit.
Where in Alaska will Trump meet Putin?
Trump and the Russian President will meet together at Elmendorf Richardson, a 13,000-square-acre US military base in Anchorage.
The two leaders are expected to discuss the three-year war in Russia’s Ukraine.
Contributions from Trevor Hughes, Jeanine Santucci, and Swapna Venogopal Ramaswamy
Source USA Today Network Report and Research. Reuters; NASA Earth Observatory; juneau.org, juneauflood.com, NOAA, National Weather Service
This story has been updated to add new graphic profiling to Hesco barriers.
