MANAWA, Wis. — The City of Manawa is cleaning up after flooding forced some people to evacuate Friday.

That included businesses and a nursing home.

Residents of Manawa began the recovery process on Saturday morning.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Austin Peterson said. “That was the most rainfall I’ve seen in my entire life living here.”

Peterson was one of many residents who gathered near the river Saturday morning to check out the damage at the Little Wolf River dam.

On Friday, he was busy dealing with flooding of his own.

“I was in my backyard trying to bail out all the water with a snow shovel and trying to keep up,” Peterson said. “There was a foot and a half of water piled up against my back door. I kind of just let it go and it went through my garage right to the road.”

By Saturday morning, the water had receded somewhat. The damage to the land around the dam is still there.

Celeste Knickerbocker lives nearby. She said she lives on higher ground and felt safe staying there, but she knows people who had to evacuate.

“I was just more worried about everybody else that was traveling through the water,” Knickerbocker said. “I said, ‘You guys better be slow and easy because you don’t know what can happen.’”

Downtown businesses were evacuated too. Rick Zemple owns Little Wolf River Outfitters on Bridge Street.

“They came and said, ‘If you can get home, you better go now,’” he said. “So, I did. I was able to crawl through some streets and get to my house, which is just out of town.”

Zemple’s business, like many, was decorated for the rodeo. It was supposed to continue with a parade Saturday. The flooding forced it to be canceled. 

Zemple said it’s an event that typically draws people to this small city.

“Normally today [there] will be thousands of people lined up on the streets for the rodeo parade,” he said. “So, it’s a hit to the town and the businesses and everything that’s not going on.”

Despite the disappointment, Knickerbocker said she’s glad everyone is okay.

“I was just glad that nobody got hurt yesterday at all,” she said. “The families got out okay and they did what they were supposed to. The rescuers came and helped everybody out. So, all I can say is I’m glad that everything is over with.”