Emergency officials in Manawa, Wisconsin, rescued people stranded on flooded roads Friday after a river bursting its banks due to torrential rains overflowed a local dam.
The Little Wolf River began flooding the Manawa Dam around 12:30 p.m. local time after the area near the dam received more than five inches of rain in about four hours Friday morning, said Kurt Kotenberg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Emergency services rescued stranded motorists as they tried to flee, Kotenberg said. “People were in cars on flooded roads,” he said. Some were rescued “standing on the hood of their cars,” he added.
As of Friday afternoon, Mr Kotenberg said no deaths or injuries had been reported as a result of the flooding.
Heavy rains in the Midwest in recent weeks have drawn attention to the vulnerability of the region’s dams. Rapidan Dam in southern Minnesota came close to failure last month.
The Manawa Dam is located near the north shore of the Wisconsin town on Manawa Mill Pond. The town, home to about 1,400 people, is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Green Bay. Kotenberg said it would take time to determine whether the dam has cracked.
In an advisory, the weather service urged Manawa residents to seek higher ground if possible. Kotenberg said residents should try to do so while sheltering in place and not try to flee via flooded roads.
In a message posted on FacebookThe Waupaca County Sheriff’s Office said emergency personnel were “working diligently” to help vulnerable people in Manawa and urged residents to avoid entering the town.
In another message, authorities urged residents in the affected area to boil tap water before drinking it, saying “the public should assume that the water is not safe to drink due to contaminants.”
