Juneau is digging out from one of the most punishing winter onslaughts in its history, with roughly 7 feet of dense, wet snow collapsing roofs, sinking boats and cutting off neighborhoods behind towering berms of plowed ice. What began as a series of intense storms has now escalated into a full-blown disaster, with local officials declaring an emergency and the state stepping in as the capital faces avalanches, flooding risk and a long, dangerous cleanup.
The scale of the damage is stark: at least eight boats have gone under in harbors choked with slush, homes and businesses have suffered structural failures, and residents are watching hillsides above town for the next slide. As the snowpack settles and rain rides in on a warm atmospheric river, the crisis is shifting from simple accumulation to a complex mix of avalanche danger, water damage and economic disruption that will test Juneau’s resilience well beyond this winter.
The storm that buried Alaska’s capital
The core of the emergency is the sheer volume of snow that has fallen on Juneau and surrounding communities in southeast Alaska. Over several weeks, storms stacked up roughly 7 feet of accumulation, with As Juneau, Alaska, struggled to dig out from a record-breaking 82 inches of snow that turned streets into trenches and parking lots into snowfields. This was not the light, powdery snow that interior Alaskans sometimes celebrate, but a heavy, moisture-laden blanket that pressed down on roofs, decks and docks with crushing force.
Earlier in the season, Juneau closed out December under what one account described as an astonishing load of wet, heavy and relentless precipitation, as the same pattern that buried the city also hammered nearby communities across Alaska. That sequence culminated in a massive snowstorm that dropped about 7 feet, triggering roof collapses and boat sinkings that rippled through harbors and neighborhoods, as detailed in coverage of Alaska’s recent storms. For a city already accustomed to long winters, the difference this time is the intensity and persistence of the snowfall, which has pushed infrastructure and emergency services to their limits.
Boats sunk, roofs crushed and a city under strain
On the waterfront, the weight of the snow translated directly into sinking hulls and shattered livelihoods. At least eight boats went down in local harbors as the 7-foot accumulation piled onto decks and rigging, overwhelming bilge pumps and mooring lines before owners could clear the load. In some cases, vessels were found partially submerged under a mix of snow, ice and seawater, a visible sign of how quickly the storm turned from an inconvenience into a maritime emergency for Juneau’s fishing and charter fleets.
On land, the same wet, heavy snow that sank boats also crushed roofs and carports, particularly on flat or lightly pitched structures that had not been cleared between storms. Reports from the region describe multiple roof collapses as the snowpack thickened, with some buildings suffering partial failures and others losing entire sections under the strain of the 7-foot load. The cumulative impact has been a citywide strain on contractors, insurance adjusters and building inspectors, all working through a backlog of damage assessments while residents navigate narrowed streets and towering snowbanks in the heart of Juneau.
From local emergency to statewide disaster
As the snow kept falling and the damage mounted, Juneau officials moved from routine storm response to formal emergency measures. City leaders in Jan declared a local emergency following the record-breaking snowfall, a step that opened the door to additional resources and underscored how far conditions had deteriorated. That declaration came as the community was also placed under a flood advisory watch, reflecting concern that any rapid warmup or rain-on-snow event could turn the deep snowpack into a flood hazard, as documented in the local account of how Juneau declares emergencies.
The crisis soon escalated beyond the city level. Governor Mike Dunleavy, responding to both the ongoing atmospheric river and the earlier storms that dropped the 7 feet of snow, issued a disaster declaration Saturday for the combined impacts on southeast Alaska. That statewide move recognized not only the accumulating snow reaching 82 inches in Juneau but also the broader pattern of avalanches, infrastructure damage and economic disruption across the region, as outlined in coverage of how Governor Mike Dunleavy responded. For residents, the declaration is both a recognition of their ordeal and a practical mechanism to bring in state support for cleanup, repairs and long-term mitigation.
Avalanche risk and evacuations on unstable slopes
Even as plows and loaders carved channels through the city, the steep mountains that frame Juneau introduced a second, more unpredictable threat. The same storms that buried downtown also loaded avalanche paths above residential areas, creating unstable slabs of snow that could release with little warning. City officials in Jan issued an evacuation advisory after multiple small avalanches, urging people in certain high-risk zones to leave their homes as a precaution while crews monitored the slopes and cleared debris from earlier slides.
Those advisories were not theoretical. Video from the period shows small but worrisome avalanches spilling across access roads and into treed areas above town, a reminder that Juneau’s geography leaves little margin for error when snowpacks reach this depth. The evacuation advisory after multiple small avalanches, highlighted in coverage of how Juneau, Alaska responded, underscores how quickly a snow emergency can morph into a landslide crisis. For residents in those zones, the choice was stark: stay and risk being cut off or worse, or leave and face the uncertainty of when it would be safe to return.
From snow removal to long-term resilience
In the immediate term, Juneau’s priority has been simply moving the snow. Crews have removed millions of pounds from key corridors, trucking it to dump sites and trying to keep up as new storms ride in on the atmospheric river pattern. That work is laborious and expensive, but it is also a race against time, because every day that 7 feet of snow sits on roofs, docks and hillsides increases the risk of further collapses, flooding and avalanches. The city’s emergency declaration and the state disaster order are, in part, acknowledgments that local budgets and manpower are not enough to manage a winter of this magnitude on their own.
Looking ahead, I see this episode as a stress test for how coastal Alaskan communities adapt to a climate that is delivering more intense precipitation events, often as heavy, wet snow rather than the colder, drier storms of the past. The combination of 82 inches of accumulation, eight sunken boats and repeated avalanche advisories in a single season suggests that infrastructure, building codes and emergency planning will all need to evolve. Juneau’s experience this winter, captured across detailed reporting on the city’s emergency status and the wider impacts across Juneau and southeast Alaska, is likely to become a reference point for how small, mountainous capitals prepare for the next time 7 feet of snow arrives in a matter of weeks.
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