LIVE UPDATES: Evacuation advisory lifted, avalanche concerns continue

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) - The City and Borough of Juneau issued evacuation advisories on Friday, Jan. 9 due to the increasing risk of avalanches in the area with record rain falling across the area following record-breaking snowfall, creating a dangerous mix of conditions. Extreme rain and wind are also being reported in Sitka and Ketchikan, along with heavy snow near Haines and Skagway.

10:30 a.m. Wednesday - Evacuation advisory lifted

The evacuation advisory in Juneau has been lifted of all known avalanche paths, including Behrends. The CBJ still states that an avalanche risk remains elevated.

8 a.m. Wednesday - Thane Road reopened

Thane Road has been opened again as of 8 a.m. Wednesday. Drivers are being reminded not to stop in the avalanche zone.

8:30 p.m. Monday - Thane Road closure coming as officials monitor dangerous avalanche conditions

Thane Road will be closed at the avalanche gates starting at noon Tuesday due to high avalanche hazard, according to local officials.

The emergency closure will be re-evaluated at 6 a.m. Wednesday. Officials said if an avalanche reaches the roadway, officials may be unable to remove debris until conditions improve.

4:15 p.m. Monday - Red Cross shelter remains open, one area still under evacuation advisory

Part of the evacuation advisory in Juneau has been lifted, but the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) said “avalanche hazard remains elevated across all areas.”

The evacuation advisory has been lifted for all known slide paths except the Behrends slide path, city officials said.

“Residents are advised to stay out of the Behrends pathway and to continue avoiding travel and recreation in the Flume Trail area,” according to the CBJ. “Slide paths outside of the Behrends area have experienced enough natural avalanche activity that forecasters no longer consider them an imminent threat.”

CBJ Avalanche Advisor John Bressette said that this weekend, the CBJ — in partnership with DOT — flew drones to get an idea of what is going on.

“What we found outside of the Behrends path is that we’ve had a lot of avalanches on Thane, and above the Flume, and above the White Subdivision and the Greenhouse path,” he said.

“That means is a lot of this snow has already slid, reducing the amount of snow that’s able to slide still. So, we feel better about the hazard and acceptable risk levels in those areas,” Bressette said

But the Behrends slide path is another story, Bressette said.

“Near the summit, there’s a large open snow field that looks really loaded and fat — [those] are some of the terms we use in the avalanche world — and what that means is if this were to release, it has the potential to still hit homes,” he said. “There’s enough snow up there.”

The American Red Cross of Alaska said its shelter at Centennial Hall is still open Monday, at least until more is known about the next storm that is coming in.

Fourteen people stayed in the shelter Sunday night, which is down from the 40 or so that stayed over the weekend, the Red Cross said.

Shannon McCarthy, Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) communication director, commented Monday on the magnitude of snow and flooding that’s already happened in Juneau, saying “it is very unheard of.”

She said Thane Road continues to be open for now, and Juneau is looking “a lot better” than last week.

McCarthy said crews are hard at work.

“We really are moving down our inventory. So, making sure that everything is sanded, all the drains are thawed so that any kind of water can drain away from the roads,” she said. “Because what we don’t want is that water to refreeze and make it really slippery.”

They are making progress, she said.

“We had a lot of standing water, a lot of melting,” she said. “The crews were able to really push back the snow berms. So, we’re widening up our roads. A lot of the drains have been thawed by our crews. So, we have a lot less ponding.”

She said there is still some ponding and ice on the roads.

She recommends everyone remain vigilant on Juneau roads.

She said people should tell law enforcement if they find avalanche debris in the road and that no one should not drive over it.

The CBJ is also asking property owners to report damage and flooding.

9:30 a.m. Monday - Juneau Schools reopen

All Juneau Schools, except Mendenhall River Community School (MRCS), are open and will be on a regular schedule.

According to the Juneau School District, buses will run on normal routes. There will be no school bus service on Thane Road or on Glacier Avenue/Glacier Highway between Highland Drive and Bartlett Regional Hospital. The Mendenhall Peninsula stop will meet at Engineers Cutoff on Glacier Highway.

MRCS now has the snow cleared off the roof, but snow is still being cleared from the ground around the school. MRCS students and staff will transition to remote learning on Monday.

The City and Borough of Juneau and engineers evaluated the roofs at all school buildings over the weekend. All schools have been cleared for occupancy.

For those who feel uncomfortable sending students to school due to the weather, student absences will be excused.

5:45 p.m. Sunday - Shelter remains open as evacuations, avalanche concerns continue

The City and Borough of Juneau said the evacuations remain in effect Sunday.

And forecasts show the avalanche concern continues after feet of snow, and now inches of rain and melting.

The America Red Cross of Alaska said 40 people stayed at the Centennial Hall shelter overnight Saturday into Sunday, and it will continue to be operational at least through Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Thane Road, which had been closed since January 9 due to its proximity to a known avalanche path, reopened Sunday morning, with the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) saying that could still change.

“Our avalanche hazard remains elevated, but we haven’t seen any additional avalanches in the last 24 hours that we’ve been able to detect with our avalanche detection system that we’ve installed along Thane Road,” Alaska DOT Avalanche Forecaster Pat Dryer said specifically about Thane Road.

However, he stressed that conditions along the road may still be unsafe.

“We’re continuously monitoring the forecasted weather, recorded precipitation amounts, recorded snow amounts and using that to make our decisions on what the avalanche hazard is to Thane Road,” Dryer explained. “Given the current weather outlook, we can expect that the avalanche hazard for Thane Road will remain elevated.”

Across the city, the DOT said some road conditions are improving.

“Our priority one routes, which are major highways in Juneau, are in pretty darn good shape,” said DOT chief of maintenance and operations for the south coast region Marcus Zimmerman. “Priority two, we do have some slippery spots that might be encountered, a little bit of ice on some of those roads. Priority three and four routes are still a little bit more ice-covered.”

Those priority one routes include Egan Drive and Mendenhall Loop Road.

The DOT said its main road maintenance priorities at this stage are pushing snow back toward the edges of the road, sanding roads and clearing sidewalks for pedestrians.

Noon Sunday - Thane Road is open

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) announced around 10:30 a.m. Sunday that Thane Road is open, but that could still change.

“Avalanche hazard remains elevated and additional closures are possible. With continued active weather Thane Road could close with limited advance notice,” DOT said online.

6:30 p.m. Saturday - Red Cross shelter remains open

Forty-five people chose to spend Friday night at a Red Cross shelter as conditions in Juneau made them choose to evacuate, according to Britta Tonnessen, American Red Cross of Alaska community disaster programs manager for Southeast.

“We knew a couple days ago that it wasn’t a matter of if, it was when,” Tonnessen said. “We got a call about 9, 9:30 [Friday morning], and they said, ‘How early can you get going?’ So, we opened up at 10 a.m. yesterday and had doors open by noon for sheltering.”

Tonnessen said the shelter is equipped to house up to 150 people trying to get away from potential avalanche paths or other winter impacts.

Residents can also bring their pets, who are cared for in a nearby separate area.

Juneau Animal Rescue is also offering free temporary boarding.

“We would accept anybody who’s been displaced due to this winter storm,” Tonnessen said.

She said that the shelter expects to remain open until at least Monday, and additional precipitation for next week could force them to extend that date.

“The advisory for evacuation will be through tonight and then reevaluate tomorrow. I think we get a break and there might be another system going through,” Tonnessen said. “So, we’re expecting to at least go through Monday at the earliest.”

6 p.m. Saturday - Avalanches caught on camera

Multiple avalanches have been caught on camera since the dangerous weather started in the Juneau area.

“It sounded like a loud rumble, like a jet flying over, like right over the top of your head,” Trav Adams said about the avalanche he caught on camera Friday.

He is from Kake, but was working to clear roofs in Juneau’s downtown area when he heard commotion.

“At first, I thought it was just an airplane. I was trying to figure out why everybody was getting excited about an airplane. And I turned around when somebody screamed avalanche and just happened to whip my phone out in time to catch the remaining. It lasted about maybe two and a half minutes,” Adams said.

Video of avalanches and the weather situation in the Juneau area help others who aren’t experiencing it get a glimpse into what people are dealing with.

If you have photos or videos you would like to share, you can submit them on our website’s “submit photos and videos” tab.

1:30 p.m. Saturday - Avalanches continue in Juneau area as evacuation alerts persist

Multiple avalanches have fallen in the Juneau area since Friday and the danger is not over, officials reported during a City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) news conference Saturday morning, which included multiple agencies.

“We are well into the double digits on both sides of Mount Juneau,” the CBJ’s Avalanche Advisor John Bressette said. “We had multiple avalanches in the White Pass, we had multiple avalanches on Behrends Avenue, as well as multiple avalanches on what’s called the Chop Gully side.”

Alaska’s News Source Meteorologist Bailey Braun said with this atmospheric river event taking place, over an inch of rain is likely in Juneau today, and an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain is forecasted through Sunday night. While these impacts are significant, a secondary storm system is likely to sweep across Southeast, bringing yet another round of heavy rain and warm temperatures, adding to the danger.

City officials reiterated that anyone within a known avalanche path should seek shelter.

“We are still in an avalanche hazard,” CBJ Assistant Chief of Administration Sam Russell said. “We are still advising evacuation and making sure that people are out of the avalanche zones.”

Russell advised residents to consult CBJ maps to find out if they are in such a zone.

“We are fully aware that the avalanche problem is not the only hazard that we’re seeing today. As this storm continues, we are monitoring again the vertical build infrastructure, snow loads on roofs, all of the implications that come along with snow removal on streets, and drains, and hydrants,” Ryan O’Shaughnessy, CBJ Emergency Programs Manager, said.

Aaron Jacobs with the National Weather Service stressed that this situation is unprecedented in the state capital’s records.

“The amount of snowpack that we are seeing on the ground at the airport and then this massive warmup that we’re seeing really hasn’t been seen in the climate records,” he said. “The last time that we saw this amount of snow was in February of 1965, and then going into March of that [year], we didn’t really see a big warmup with rain.”

There is an American Red Cross of Alaska shelter open at Centennial Hall for people who had to evacuate. Russell said 47 people stayed at it overnight Friday to Saturday.

And the CBJ chose to move its weather emergency warming shelter since it was in the evacuation area. As a result, it was temporarily moved to the gym at Glacier Valley Elementary School, which had a roof cleared of most of its snow.

“We had an empty gym for the night, and how could we have said no?” Juneau School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said. “When an emergency happens, we all pull together to help.”

Still, the city said the shelter will move again once schools in Juneau are back in session.

“There is no scenario where the warming shelter will continue to exist in a school once a school is in operation again,” Juneau’s Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said.

“We are working on whether or not that can happen today or if that move must happen tomorrow,” he said.

“If we can’t move it back to Thane because of the avalanche risk, then we will identify another non-school CBJ facility to operate that out of,” he said.

Barr said no CBJ buildings have experienced roof collapses but have seen structural damage that they think is related to roof loading.

Officials stressed that residents should avoid climbing up onto their roofs to clear snow, even as conditions marginally improve.

“As the weather warms up and we’ve got a break in the weather, people are going to be tempted to get on their roofs and try to take care of some of the roof load,” Russell said.

“With this warming trend, the roofs are going to naturally drain, and the load is going to come off them fairly rapidly just though the natural process. And so, getting up on your roof is an extremely dangerous way to be as these slippery conditions exist,” he said

8:55 a.m. Saturday - Storm damage reported across Southeast

Following record rainfall, rapid snowmelt and extreme wind, many communities are reporting damage.

In Douglas and in the Mendenhall Valley, water was reported in homes and across the roadways. 4 to 5 feet of ponded water was reported on the roadway near the intersection of Egan Drive and West 12th street in Juneau.

In Ketchikan, Lake Connell and Ward Lake reached a flood stage of 252.25 feet. Power outages were reported in Saxman Friday evening.

If you see storm damage in your neighborhood, you can report the conditions here.

8:35 a.m. Saturday - New rainfall records set in many communities

As heavy rain moved in Friday, many new daily rainfall records were set across Southeast.

• 1.58″ of rain fell in Juneau, breaking the previous record of 0.96″ set in 2022.
• 4.49″ of rain fell in Ketchikan, breaking the previous record of 2.58″ in 2022.
• 1.43″ of rain fell in Sitka, breaking the previous record of 1.14″ set in 1987.

4:40 p.m. Friday - Avalanches continue across Juneau with heavy rain lasting through the weekend

The transition from snow to rain has begun across most of Southeast. Through the night and into Saturday, between 1 to 4 inches of rain are forecasted for Juneau paired with temperatures in the upper 30s and low 40s.

Avalanche risk will only increase as the weekend progress, so be sure to check for updates on the areas at risk on the CBJ Map. Flood Watches are in effect across the panhandle, with these alerts expiring Saturday night in Juneau and Monday morning in southern areas like Ketchikan.

As water begins to collect from heavy rain and snowmelt, the rule of thumb for standing water is “turn around, don’t drown.” These hazards are life-threatening and should be taken seriously with the advisory from officials.

4:10 p.m. Friday - Avalanches reported on slopes near Juneau

Multiple avalanches have been reported Friday by residents, including one that was captured on video by Jessica Davis.

See the video above.

12:45 p.m. Friday - Juneau issues evacuation advisory

The city and borough, with the Alaska Department of Transportation, the National Weather Service and Tlingit & Haida, held a media briefing at 11:30 a.m. to address ongoing hazardous weather conditions and the avalanche evacuation advisory.

CBJ emergency manager Ryan O’Shaughnessy says hundreds of individuals will need to evacuate.

For those in the evacuation zone, Ryan O’Shaughnessy, the emergency manager for CBJ, says the time to leave is now and expect to be gone for a few days until available data and recommendations from the experts say otherwise.

“Now is not the time to make final preparations. Now is the time to evacuate and leave your home,” O’Shaughnessy said.

The emergency shelter is open at Centennial Hall. Dogs and cats are welcome.

For those who cannot evacuate, O’Shaughnessy advised calling 911 for emergency transport, but this applies only to those who absolutely cannot get a ride or get themselves out of the evacuation zone.

Officials recommended residents use the CBJ map to find out where the evacuation zone is. O’Shaughnessy said specific neighborhoods and areas are not being listed in the advisory in order to avoid confusion.

Officials confirmed several small avalanches around Juneau on Friday morning. At least four or five happened down the Chop Gully side of Mount Juneau, there was one report of debris in the White Path and multiple avalanches along Thane Road.

CBJ’s Avalanche Advisor John Bressette said these small avalanches are a good sign.

“In general, many small slides are gonna reduce the hazard overall by decreasing the amount of snow that can come down in the larger slide,” Bressette said. “It’s actually a good thing that we’re seeing smaller slides reducing the total snow load that is capable of producing an avalanche.”

Schools in Juneau were canceled Friday. While no schools are located in the evacuation zone, school district officials will monitor transportation issues ahead of Monday.

Superintendent Frank Hauser states if there are any closures Monday, they will be on a school-by-school basis and will most likely be remote learning days. He advised parents to monitor communication from principals.

11:15 a.m. Friday

“This evacuation advisory is made with the safety of Juneau residents in mind. This decision is not made lightly and CBJ realizes that evacuating under extreme weather conditions may be difficult. Again, the safety of Juneau residents is our main factor in making this evacuation advisory,” a press release from the CBJ states.

Emergency shelter will be available at Centennial Hall by noon on Friday.

The Alaska Department of Transportation will close Thane Road at the avalanche gates at 12 p.m. The emergency closure will be re-evaluated at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10.

CBJ warns Thane residents to expect extended road closures.

Juneau residents can find current hazard levels here.

The capital city and outlying areas have been impacted by a deluge of precipitation in recent weeks, starting with record-breaking snowfall in December that sunk boats in the harbor and collapsed roofs of businesses in town.

Heavy rain is expected to arrive Friday afternoon on top of that snow.

An avalanche was reported to be blocking the Haines Highway on Friday morning, according to Haines police.

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