Rains overwhelm a river levee in Arizona

A levee was breached Monday in a small town near the Arizona-New Mexico state line, forcing the evacuations of 60 people after a weekend of flash floods across the American Southwest that also swept away one woman who is still missing in Utah's Zion National Park.In Duncan, a rural Arizona town located about 180 miles from Phoenix, weekend rains overwhelmed a dirt-barrier levee built more than a century ago to contain the Gila River, putting the town under inches of water.

The flooding incident was among several to recently wreak havoc on a drought-stricken region that spans from Dallas, Texas to Las Vegas, Nevada — stranding tourists, closing highways and funneling trees and rocks toward downtowns.Flooding has swept parts of southern Utah in and around Moab and Zion throughout the summer, causing streams of water to cascade down from the region's red rock cliffs and spill out from the sides of riverbanks.