Seattle

Teen survives in car for days in ravine

After eight days, Laura Hatch’s family had almost given the 17-year-old up for dead, and sheriff’s deputies had all but written her off as a runaway. Then she was found, badly hurt and severely dehydrated, but alive and conscious, in the back seat of a crumpled car, pictured above, 200 feet down a ravine.

A volunteer searcher who said she had had several vivid dreams of a wooded area found the wrecked car in the trees Sunday.

Hatch, who remained hospitalized Monday in serious condition, was last seen at a party Oct. 2. When she did not show up by the next day, her family filed a missing person’s report.

The initial search was slowed because there had been underage drinking at the party, and the young people who attended would not say where it had taken place, sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said.

Wisconsin

Massive power outage deliberately set off

Someone removed bolts from the base of a high-voltage electrical transmission tower, causing it to fall on a second tower and knock out power to 17,000 customers.

The federal Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI were investigating.

“We have not determined the motive of this action,” FBI agent Mike Johnson said Monday. “It may be terrorism, it may not be. It’s just too early to tell.”

Both 80-foot towers fell to the ground Saturday. The bolts had been removed from plates connecting the legs of one tower to its base, Police Chief Thomas Bauer said.

The incident near Oak Creek, a Milwaukee suburb, caused a four-hour blackout for 17,000 customers, including General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee.