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| The current carries the 15-year-old on a
5-mile ride down a New Mexico drainage channel on
Saturday. | BEIJING,
July 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Heavy rains and a tornado hit southeast
Colorado in the United States on Sunday, after the storm caused flash flooding that blocked
roadways and sent a teenager on a ride through a drainage channel the day
before.
Downpours in the northern
part of Pueblo County closed an eight-mile section of
Interstate 25 on Sunday. The waters also inundated homes and forced evacuations
in parts of the Southwest U.S.
The National Weather Service issued flash-flood
warnings. Meteorologists said there were reports of 3 to 4 inches of rain across
northern Pueblo County, where a tornado touched down, and 4 to 6 inches of rain
in southeast Cheyenne County.
In New Mexico, a 15-year-old boy fell into a flooded
diversion channel in Albuquerque on Saturday night, and was carried by the
raging current for five miles before he was rescued, said Albuquerque fire
inspector Gabe Serna.
It took three attempts before rescue crews could pull
him from the swift current, Serna said. The boy was later transported to a
hospital and treated for hypothermia and abrasions.
"I don't know how many times we tell people, 'Do not
play in the arroyo.' We always manage to get one that falls in," he said.
Thunderstorms dropped an estimated 3 inches of rain
in an hour Saturday over Truth or Consequences and the surrounding area, south
of Albuquerque, the weather service said.
Flooding washed out roads in Rio Rancho, just north
of Albuquerque, and 4 feet of water covered an Interstate 25 exit in Socorro.
Colorado Governor Bill Owens issued a disaster
emergency order Saturday for Douglas County, southwest of Denver, where rain had
washed out roads and flooded homes in areas stripped of vegetation by a
138,000-acre wildfire in 2002.Enditem
(Agencies)
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