OCONTO, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS)- Severe ice jam flooding Monday into Tuesday caused the city of Oconto to be nearly submerged underwater. Nearly all of the city's main streets downtown were closed.

"This is extremely early," says City Administrator Sara Perrizo. "We expect this in the spring and certainly, we've prepared for that which came in handy last night, but it's very early."

The Oconto River flooded its banks around 11:30 Monday night, due to an ice jam. It has devastated local businesses, specifically on Pecor Street, the hardest-hit areas.

"It's just sad to see something you worked so hard to accomplish," says Dylan Lukas, who runs North Shore Bait Shop with his father, Paul. "I mean we've grown so much over four years, it's just devastating."

"We tried our best last night to get it all squared away but, it came so fast, we just couldn't before we had to evacuate the building," says Paul Lukas.

The city lifted its flood emergency Wednesday. No mandatory evacuations were ordered. North Shore Bait Shop is now open again. Tuesday, Paul and Dylan said they already had community members ready to help.

"A lot of people have been reaching out to me all day, it's warming," says Paul. "You're not going to get rich from a bait shop, but I did it for my community."

Paul says his shop suffered about $30,000 in damages from being submerged under about 14 inches of water.

Sara Perrizo says changing temperatures early in the week from above freezing to below freezing in a short amount of time caused the ice jams. 

"Also, because of the precipitation we got along with the flooding, we had water coming through the storm sewers flooding in other areas as well," says Sara.

Sara says from Main to Pecor Street, as well as Collins and Scherer Avenue flooded. 1st Street through 7th Street were affected also.

Thursday, The American Red Cross distributed free clean-up kits to people in Oconto who experienced flooding and water damage. They included a mop, bleach, sponges, gloves, and a squeegee​. Volunteers also worked with those affected to identify resources for folks with heavily damaged properties.

Sara says flooding of this magnitude has not happened in the city since 1986.