Wisconsin dam fails as water flows over top, residents urged to seek high ground

Flash flood warnings have been issued for parts of central Wisconsin and evacuations are underway as water has overflown the Manawa dam in Waupaca County, a surge National Weather Service officials consider a dam failure.

Major flooding is expected downstream from the dam and the Little Wolf River in Waupaca, where the NWS issued flash flood warnings until 9:30 p.m. All entrances to Manawa, the dam's namesake city with a population of roughly 1,400, are blocked, according to a post on the city's Facebook page.

Additional warnings were issued for Outagamie County, where officials in the city of Appleton launched emergency boats to rescue residents from flooded homes. A flood watch was issued for the city of Green Bay.

The NWS is urging residents to move to higher ground. Weather officials said there were no injuries related to the flooding as of 3 p.m. local time.

Witness describes rushing floodwater in Manawa

Ian Corkhill was driving his Silverado north of Manawa Friday morning when he came across “major flooding” and a stuck Chevorlet Trailblazer.

“The water was running,” Corkhill said. “It wasn’t just like a stationary flood. You could tell that it was rushing water.”

Many vehicles pulled off into a nearby church parking lot, he said, and traffic was backing up.

“I was just hoping that people in smaller cars would not try and go through there,” he said. “I couldn’t tell obviously how deep the water was. But, I could tell it was up to the doors on some of those cars, so that’s probably, I would say, 3-feet deep.”

Corkhill saw two more cars get stuck in the floodwaters amid the "torrential" rain.

“I could feel like the rain moving my truck,” he said. “It was pretty nerve-wracking.”

Flooding started at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Manawa dam fails

Between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Friday, the northwest side of Manawa received 5.6 inches of rain, according to Kurt Kotenderg, a meteorologist for NWS of Green Bay. Outagamie County also saw 2 to 3 inches of rain this morning until around noon and is expecting 1 to 1½ inches of rain to yet fall.

According to the city of Manawa Facebook page, vehicles are being flooded on the roads around the city. Citizens have been urged to avoid driving in the area.

"Turn around, don`t drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles," the U.S. National Weather Service in Green Bay advised.

The city of Manawa's Facebook page also reported that the Manawa dam has faced major damage, but isn't completely broken. NWS explained to the Post-Crescent newspaper that the dam has been over-topped, meaning there is so much water that it is going over the dam. This is deemed a dam failure.

The flooding has caused the cancellation of the second day of Mid-Western Rodeo, which started yesterday and was slated to wrap up Sunday. The rodeo's Facebook page announced that all performances for the weekend would be cancelled due to the flooding.

The Manawa police department released a press release, saying the land near the dam was eroding when first responders arrived, which started evacuation down the river.

Contributing by Rashad Alexander of the Post Crescent, part of the USA TODAY network.