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While flood waters have receded over the past two days in Vernon County, a new system of storms carrying heavy rain had officials looking to the sky Wednesday afternoon.

Villages hit hard by the flooding of the Kickapoo River on June 6-7, including Ontario, La Farge, Viola and Readstown, had done a considerable amount of clean up between Monday and Wednesday.

The National Weather Service has Viroqua under a flood warning and a flash flood watch with a 60 percent chance of rain on Wednesday and a 70 percent chance of rain on Thursday. After that however, only a slight chance of rain is in the forecast through the weekend.

Vernon County officials announced Wednesday morning they were going to intentionally breach a portion of the Yttri-Primmer dam in central Vernon County. The dam is located about three miles east of Viroqua in Vernon County, on Maple Dale Road north of Hwy 56. The partial breach was to be carried out by heavy equipment.

The dam was severely damaged in the storms last August, and suffered additional damage in the recent rains. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has authorized $50,000 in emergency funds, and will provide technical assistance. Vernon County is the sponsor of the dam, and has responsibility for maintenance and safety. The Wisconsin DNR is cooperating on the dam breach and providing technical assistance.

Because of the breach, Hwy. 56 is being closed and two homes in the shadow of the dam are being evacuated.

“No water will be released as this action takes place,” Kelly Jacobs, Vernon County’s Conservationist said in a news release regarding the breech. “The dam will be lowered through partial controlled breach to allow any future high water levels to flow over, reducing the potential for an uncontrolled dam breach in the event of another storm.”