ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Residents and officials in Alaska’s capital city prepared Friday for the possibility of glacial flooding that in past years has swept away houses, swamped several hundred homes and eroded the river fed by the popular Mendenhall Glacier.

A melting glacier pushed the Mendenhall River to a record-high crest of more than 16 feet, prompting a major flood threat to the Alaskan state capital. But more than two miles of newly installed barriers protected neighborhoods from a repeat of the severe flooding of the past two years.