As floodwaters in Juneau rise slower than initially predicted, some Mendenhall Valley residents who live next to the river said they’re feeling hopeful about a lower crest and less damage.Last year,nearly 50 homes flooded since the HESCO barriers leaked. In 2024, before the barriers were built,nearly 300 homes flooded.
Thursday morning, residents sipped coffee in the sun on porches and driveways. By 10:20 a.m., water hadn’t touched the barriers yet along Marion Drive and Meander Way.
Sam Hatch lives on Meander Way, a street that’s seen disastrous flooding in past years. Last year, water leaked through the HESCO flood wall and inundated some crawl spaces and garages on the street.
But the Hatch family home was spared.
In 2024, theyraised their house on steel pilingsdrilled 30 feet into the ground to protect themselves from the annual flood.
While Hatch’s kids camped out in a friend’s yard outside of the evacuation zone Wednesday night, he and his wife slept in their own bed.
“I just left the window open, expecting if the pumps go on, that wakes you up, and then you know to pay attention or do stuff — and nothing happened,” Hatch said.
Hatch said they’re glad the crest is expected to hit in the daylight. Last year, he woke up at 2 a.m. to help neighbors pump water back over the flood wall.
He said he expects some water to leak through, again, even if the flood wall works perfectly. That’s because he said his street is built on gravel.
“You dig down, five feet down, it’s water,” he said. “So when the water table comes up, so does the water in our neighborhood.”
Hatch said he’ll stay at home through the flood’s peak — he feels confident in his reinforced home. But he still worries about the worst-case scenario.
“The ultimate nightmare fuel is the barriers letting loose and, just like ripping a house to shreds, you can’t make that thought go away,” Hatch said. “But they are bigger, they are heavier, they are thicker and more tied together, which, in my mind, decreases the chances of that happening.”
Down the street, a few 50-foot-long yellow water bladders surround the Zaleski home, where Molly, Adam and their son are sipping coffee and a smoothie.
Molly said she and her son stayed with a friend in the Flats neighborhood downtown on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, when she checked in with Adam, she said the street seemed calm.
“He texted us how it was going, and I’ve been watching the live feeds and everything, and I was like, I think that we can still bring breakfast,” she said. “So we grabbed donuts from downtown and delivered them here.”
Zaleski planned to head back out of the evacuation zone before the crest.
See the latest flood updates on ourlive blog.
Copyright 2026 KTOO