JUNEAU, Alaska – Unrelenting snowfall buried the city of Juneau during an extraordinary winter storm, leaving nearly 2 million pounds of wet, heavy snow on the roof of Mendenhall River Community School and prompting a five-day, 130-plus person city effort to clear it.
Nearly 7 feet of snow slammed the area between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, breaking a city record.
HEAVY SNOW AND EXTREME WEATHER CAUSE SUNKEN VESSELS AND AVALANCHE RISK IN ALASKA
The snow removal process began on Thursday, Jan. 8, and as a precaution, students at the Mendenhall River Community School were relocated to Thunder Middle School around midday, city officials said.
A crew of 20 people started clearing the roof at 3:20 p.m. local time, beginning with the gym and continuing across the rest of the building over the weekend.
As the snow grew heavier, reinforcements were called in, eventually bringing the crew to 134 people on Sunday, according to the City and Borough of Juneau.
Crews removed the last of the snow from the ground around the school on Monday.
Hundreds of shovels were used throughout the effort – some even breaking under the strain — along with heavy equipment, buckets and ice cleats.
Crews get shipment of shovels from Anchorage to help cleanup.
(CITY AND BUREAU OF JUNEAU/FACEBOOK / FOX Weather)
The City and Borough of Juneau shared the cleanup process on Facebook and thanked the crews for their service.
“We truly thank the teams that worked so hard on this effort, and so many others,” the city said on social media.
This comes just as the city has been under avalanche threats and evacuations due to an atmospheric river.
Juneau is digging out after days of heavy rain from an atmospheric river melted more than 7 feet of snow that fell across the Alaska Panhandle between Christmas Eve and New Year’s, triggering avalanches and evacuations around the state’s capital.
(City and Borough of Juneau/Facebook / FOX Weather)
AVALANCHE EVACUATIONS ADVISED FOR JUNEAU RESIDENTS AS ATMOSPHERIC RIVER SLAMS ALASKA
On Friday evening, the borough said that natural avalanches had occurred on Mount Juneau and on Thane Road paths.
The Juneau School District also closed on Friday to keep students and staff safe, and all city facilities were closed throughout the weekend due to the hazards.
Avalanches are triggering evacuation advisories in areas of Alaska as an atmospheric river is passing through the area, triggering flooding and life-threatening conditions in the Alaskan Panhandle.
The Evacuation Advisory for the Behrends Slide Path in Juneau is still in effect as rain and freezing levels are expected to reach 4,000 feet.
