18,000 evacuate Mexican city in case dam fails | The Wichita Eagle

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — About 18,000 people were evacuated Tuesday from a town in northern Mexico where authorities feared a dam would overflow from rains that accompanied Hurricane Alex.

Evacuees were taken to shelters in nearby towns and cities, Ciudad Anahuac Mayor Santos Garza Garcia said.

The Venustiano Carranza dam, 43 miles away, reached capacity after days of heavy rains, including remnants of the hurricane, which slammed into Mexico's northern Gulf coast last week.

Garza said 12 floodgates had been opened but authorities were unable to open 17 others because of electrical failures. He said the dam was releasing 600 cubic yards per second into the Salado River, a tributary of the Rio Grande, but could overflow soon.

U.S. teen sought after stolen plane crashes

NASSAU, Bahamas — Police were hunting across a tourist island Tuesday for signs of a pilot who vanished after wrecking a small plane in the Bahamas, and investigators in the U.S. turned their suspicions toward an American teenager on the run dubbed "the Barefoot Bandit."

The single-engine Cessna that crashed in shallow waters off Abaco island was apparently stolen more than 1,000 miles away in Bloomington, Ind. By the time rescuers arrived Sunday, nobody was inside.

The 2009 Cessna 400 Corvalis was stolen over the weekend from the Monroe County Airport, the facility's manager, Bruce Payton said. It was unclear how the thief got into the airport, which has a 10-foot security fence with barbed wire and coded access gates.