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Friday, January 14, 2005

800 homes evacuated as dam waters rise


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Rushing water rises at a dam near a California community on Friday in Corona.

CORONA, Califonia (AP) -- Rainwater building up behind a Riverside County dam prompted authorities to order more than 800 homes evacuated as a precaution early Friday.

A police spokesman said he believed there was a small leak in the Prado Dam, but a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates and oversees the dam, disputed that.

"We're releasing water," said Fred-Otto Egeler, spokesman for the Los Angeles district of the Corps of Engineers. "It's being retained behind the dam and we're making normal releases at this moment.

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