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.

This year, a giant wall of reinforced sandbags erected with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held back the worst of the flooding in Juneau, to residents' great relief.

When the peak of the annual glacial outburst flood hit early Wednesday morning in Juneau, newly installed flood barriers stacked along the Mendenhall River largely prevented flooding of the nearby residential area.