Each summer in the mountains above Juneau, Alaska, meltwater from the massive Mendenhall Glacier flows into mountain lakes and into the Mendenhall River, which runs through town.

Because the flooding has been a growing concern, city officials have installed emergency flood barriers along several miles of riverbanks.

New sandbag-style barriers installed along a river in Alaska’s capital city 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, officials said Wednesday.