Alaska declares catastrophic flooding declaration threat from glacial lake outburst

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration Sunday in response to an “imminent threat of catastrophic flooding” from a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) linked to a side basin of the Mendenhall Glacier.

That declaration comes after a joint local disaster declaration by the City and Borough of Juneau, and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

The declarations were made in anticipation of a potentially imminent and record GLOF from Suicide Basin, which sits above the Mendenhall Glacier.

“Hydrologic monitoring by the National Weather Service (NWS) and US Geological Survey (USGS) confirms that the volume of water currently impounded in Suicide Basin has reached or exceeded levels observed during prior flood-of-record events,” officials said in