‘Panic and fear’: Alaska couple barely escapes Mendenhall flood as it devastated their home

JUNEAU – Danielle and Kamal Lindoff almost became trapped in their Alaska home of more than 12 years after the nearby Mendenhall River reached record levels this week and flooded their community.

In the days leading up to the flood, residents were warned of the Mendenhall River rising due to a potential glacial outburst upstream. When the outburst seemed inevitable, Danielle and husband Kamal began to prepare their home for the worst.

“We thought we were fully prepared,” Lindoff said, noting how she and her husband used flood mitigation devices and techniques to seal their home off from as much floodwater as possible. They also moved belongings from the lowest level of their home to the upper levels.

GLACIAL LAKE OUTBURST FLOODS HOMES IN ALASKA AS RIVER RISES

Because of the measures they took, Lindoff said they decided to stay at home in hopes of mitigating the flood as it went on and saving what they could throughout the flooding event. Their home, which sits about 20 feet away from the river, survived the record flood event caused by the Mendenhall last year.

FILE: A home and trees fall into the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska, on Aug. 5, 2023. The flooding was caused by a release of water from Suicide Basin.

(Sam Nolan / LOCAL NEWS X / TMX / FOX Weather)

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Then as night fell on Monday, it slowly became clear that this year’s flood event was going to be different.

At around 10:30 p.m., Lindoff could see in front of their home that water began to pour into the streets of their neighborhood, as the street drainage system began to fill up.

“It started with three feet of water, and it started rushing up towards everyone’s property,” Lindoff said.

The street in front of the Lindoff home, as it begins to flood.

(Danielle Lindoff / FOX Weather)

To make things worse, power to the neighborhood had been shut off as a safety precaution. However, it left the couple in their home in the pitch black of night, save for the light from a couple of candles and headlamps.

“Imagine being in darkness,” Lindoff said. “Imagine yourself hearing water or hearing a crash and not knowing where it’s coming from and having to trench through water that’s flowing in from all locations and trying to find out what happened.”

SEE ALASKA’S RAGING MENDENHALL RIVER ERODE RIVERBANK

Behind their home, the river began to rise and move closer to their doorstep, with the water reaching the top of their fence line and reaching their deck. With the river now at their doorstep, the situation became more dangerous for Lindoff and Kamal.

The river beginning to overtake the fence and deck.

(Danielle Lindoff / FOX Weather)

“Because [the house] became part of the river, any debris that was coming down the river found its way to our yard and then started hitting the house,” she said.

At this point, the only thing between their home and the river was their deck, which had buckled and warped. Despite being misshapen, the deck prevented debris from crashing through a sliding glass door and into their home.

The situation was becoming more precarious, and with the water coming through every crack it could find, Lindoff and her husband decided it was time to leave.

The Lindoff home with water coming through the door, illuminated by a headlamp.

(Danielle Lindoff / FOX Weather)

Their initial plan was to leave through the front door. However, as they approached it, so much water was gushing through that it pushed the door open. Lindoff and her husband struggled to close it.

“The biggest moment of fear and panic was when we opened that front door thinking that that was our way out,” she said. “Then that panic really set in with ‘Okay, that was our escape route.’”

Thoughts such as “Did we just seal ourselves in?” and “We’re stuck in here?” came to mind, she added.

With the front door no longer an option for escape, and the sliding door blocked by the warped deck, the couple resorted to their alternate plan of escaping through a second-story window.

Water is at their doorstep. Note the black sandbags at the bottom of the frame trying to keep the water at bay.

(Danielle Lindoff / FOX Weather)

Lindoff said her husband ended up jumping out of the window on the second level and then swam to where they had tied up a raft equipped with an engine. He then drove the boat back to the house and moved Lindoff and their two cats in carriers through the window and onto the boat.

“I just said ‘Goodbye’ to my house at that point because, there was so much water, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next,” she said.

They then drove through the flooded streets in the middle of the night and found a safe, dry place to stay with a family member.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR HOUSE FLOODS

Now, Lindoff, her husband, and their 17-year-old daughter, who they had stayed with a friend the night of the flooding, are rebuilding what’s left of the devastated entry level of their home. Family and members of their community have also come out to help.

Cleanup efforts after the flood.

(Danielle Lindoff / FOX Weather)

Thinking back on the flooding event, not even two days ago, Lindoff recalls how she and her husband felt going into what would become a harrowing experience.

“This wasn’t our first time. It’s not like we didn’t know,” she said. “But the fact that we thought we were fully prepared, and the Mendenhall still said, ‘You can never be prepared’.”

To help the Lindoff family, you can donate to their GoFundMe here.

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Flooding after the Mendenhall River crested to record levels. 

(City and Borough of Juneau / FOX Weather)

The National Weather Service Juneau reported that the Mendenhall River crested at 15.99 feet at 3:15 a.m. Tuesday morning. This breaks the record set last year, which was 14.97 feet.

The City and Borough of Juneau reported on Wednesday that more than 100 homes have been affected by the floodwaters.