Officials begin to assess damage following glacial dam outburst flooding in Alaska's capital city

Officials in Alaska’s capital city are beginning to assess the damage caused by flooding following a glacial dam outburst that has become a perennial hazard for neighborhoods near Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier. The National Weather Service says the river crested early Tuesday at nearly 16 feet. That is above the crest a year earlier during a ferocious flood event that devoured large sections of riverbank and sent at least one home crashing into the water. A city official says this year's flooding reached farther into the Mendenhall Valley before waters began to recede but says there appeared to have been less erosion than last year. Some residents reinforced the riverbank near their houses after last year’s flooding.