Officials say new barriers protected against the kind of major damage inflicted during last year’s destructive Suicide Basin release, though high water inundated numerous areas.

Officials say new sandbag-style barriers installed along a river in Juneau, Alaska’s capital, have held back record levels of flooding and prevented widespread damage after an ice dam at the nearby Mendenhall Glacier released a massive amount of rainwater and snowmelt downstream.

One of Alaska's most populated cities is bracing for potentially catastrophic flooding as a basin dammed within the Mendenhall Glacier has started to release water.