MANWA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Manawa officials fielded questions from concerned community members at Monday’s public forum.
It comes after recent severe flooding and erosion of the Manawa Dam. Nick Weed from Manawa Public Works spoke on the sewer issues that occurred during the flood on July 5.
“The sewer backups in the basements, we had a lot of infiltration in our sewer system — that’s like, rain water, sump pumps getting pumped into the sewer mains. It just couldn’t handle it,” Weed said.
Among those in attendance to help address the community’s concerns were members of the police, fire, public works and public health departments.
Mayor Mike Frazier spoke about the dam erosion, saying, “Like a lot of people have told me from the experts, that dam was going to go regardless if the gates were up or not.”
Members of the community also questioned if the key to the dam was owned by somebody close to the city.
“Who owns the dam? A non city person has the key?” one attendee asked.
Mark Creig, a firefighter for the Manawa Fire Department, said the door to the dam was unlocked when firefighters arrived.
“The dam operator is local, he lives less than a mile from the dam,” Creig explained. “He was there. We have a local person right in town that operates the dam.”
Another question asked was if the city did everything in its power to stop the flooding before it happened. Andrew Carlin, director of Waupaca County Emergency Management, said the rain was unexpected.
“Yes. This was a catastrophic rainfall. Who remembers getting six inches of rain in 45 minutes? It doesn’t happen,” Carlin said.
The rainfall caught many residents by surprise, and caused damage to a number of homes and businesses. The Manawa Community Living Center was also a point of concern.
“I feel like as a community we should be able to help these people who operate the nursing home come up with a better contingency plan,” said a concerned citizen.
Carlin said that the nursing home is not the responsibility of the city.
“I haven’t talked to the nursing home. I don’t know if anybody from the city has. It’s a private nursing home. We can’t go in there and demand they do something. But we’ll have conversations with them,” he said.
Carlin also added that they will continue to improve emergency procedures for floods.
“After the event, we are going to look at everything we can make better. It’s a long process. Recovery is the longest part of all of this,” he said.
On Saturday, volunteers helped clean up damaged items from houses.
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