The danger is over for residents of Alaska's capital city of Juneau, who were urged to evacuate on Aug. 13 as the nearby Mendenhall River, engorged by water from a glacial outburst caused by a melting glacier, surpassed record flood levels.
Emergency barriers built to protect Mendenhall Valley and Juneau, a city of about 32,000 people in the Alaskan panhandle, were successful, USA TODAY reported. Most of Juneau's residents live in the valley.
Two miles of HESCO barriers were installed along the river in June to mitigate summer flooding from the Mendenhall Glacier. Glacial flooding is driven by climate change, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The flood threat did not affect a planned summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled on Aug. 15 at a military base near Anchorage, more than 500 miles away.
This is how a glacial outburst sent water toward the Mendenhall Valley, threatening Juneau.
