Wisconsin city evacuated after Manawa Dam breached amid flooding

The rainfall caused flash flooding, and once emergency crews noticed the ground near the Manawa dam eroding, officials started evacuating residents downstream, sheltering them in the city’s masonic center and high school. They also evacuated a assisted-living facility to a veterans home in King, some 20 miles away.

Around 12:30 p.m., the engorged Little Wolf River topped the Manawa Dam, Kotenberg said. Video from WGBA appears to show the river pouring through a broken levee next to the dam as earth continues to crumble into the floodwaters.

No one was injured or killed, Manawa Mayor Mike Frazier said at a news conference.

The storms formed as a slow-moving cold front and zone of low pressure pushed through the region between Friday morning and midday. Precipitation has been much higher than normal in the Upper Midwest since the spring, resulting in multiple floods.

Last month, torrential rains dumped upward of 10 inches across Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, contributing to widespread flooding across the Midwest and upper Plains. The downpours led a rail bridge connecting South Dakota and Iowa to collapse, while the Rapidan Dam near the town of Mankato, Minn., failed, washing away at least one home. The dam still faces partial collapse.

Those floods were made worse by already wet soil from preceding months of rain and rising temperatures.

In Manawa, Kotenberg said that 6 inches of rain hit the area over the past two weeks, saturating the ground and giving Friday’s rainfall nowhere to go but up. He predicts a relatively calm Saturday followed by more storms on Sunday, which he believes will drop up to a half-inch of rain on the area.

Jason Samenow and Scott Dance contributed to this report.