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the Rocky Mountains supercharged those streams and others with a deadly force that left vast corridors of destruction stretching from the foothills to the farmland of the plains.
• "The water came over and it was 2, 3 feet deep and broke our doors down," said Jack Hammond, who left his home in the foothills west of Lyons for a Fort Collins shelter with his wife, their daughter and their dog.
• Dams along a chain of five small reservoirs failed upstream of Hammond's home on a Little Thompson tributary as the rain picked up Wednesday. As the family huddled upstairs, water downstairs toppled their refrigerator and dumped 6 inches of mud. Finally, on Friday, a Colorado National Guard helicopter hoisted them and their young German shepherd to safety.
• In semi-arid Colorado, the problem is usually too little rain that leads to drought

and wildfires. But when the skies open up, the potential for the biggest drenching lies along the Front Range, where the eastern foothills meet the plains and most of the state's population lives.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hiring is soft. Pay is barely up. Consumers are cautious. Economic growth has yet to

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