Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 1

Fenster's 1 The iPrepaying! Suns top Golf still Oscar best, worst itJ your iMuggets, drives SLSl picEts legislators! mortgage! 121-101 Nicklaus How vital are foreign tourists? Indiana 106, UCLA 79 Duke 104, Kentucky 1 03 THE AIMZ(MA MEFUBLEC Final Edition $1.50 Copyright 1992. The Arizona Republic Phoenix, Arizona Sunday, March 29, 1992 102nd year. No. 316 I SPECIAL REPORT Rock fans Mow phone circuits U2 tickets draw 4 million calls FEAR OF FLOODING Heavy winter snows and rains, dam construction combine to make Valley vulnerable to disaster Central Arizona DAMS, RIVERS AND CANALS i Construction on Roosevelt Dam. counted with the wettest winter in a decade.

By Jonathan Sidener The Arizona Republic For a few hours Saturday, it was U2 vs. West. And the mighty phone system blinked. Fans of the Irish rock band swamped West Communications with 4 million phone calls as concert tickets for the popular group went on sale. All 12,742 seats for the April 10 concert were sold in two hours and 41 minutes.

The fans overloaded the system and caused scattered disruption of service. "At about 20 after 8 (a.m I picked up the phone and dialed. Then, I realized I never got a dial tone," Arizona State University student Sondra Roberto said in Tempe. "I thought something was wrong with my phone. I ran around the See ROCK, page A 12 has made metropolitan Phoenix vulnerable to a catastrophic flood.

The increased flooding risk will continue until December 19, when planned improvements -P I to Barilclt and Horseshoe dams are to be completed. Horseshoe Dam I I 4 Horseshoe lake I wiuuuiiuh mm TPfc I i. aa mn Th jtfttAn Hfci i i i. a yvs dam could collapse if it is topped I New Waddel Dam I by a massive runoff. I nkr Phti-Mni I 1 I Spillway is too small.

Dam could vi' 1 i fail under a massive runoff or if i Hf fry-j fji Horseshoe Dam collapsed. 4 I -vs '7 JP" ylfv1 0 W.TTf I Horse Meso Dam wT JJ -I, ir" IV Stewart Mountain Dam I l.uke CZS?" S5" V' j3r Lf I 1 -i. L. Granite Work to repair and fortify WZL a 7 1 I the dam has completed Hivcr. Up to 100 adoptions may be lost Troubled Scottsdale firm's cases Roosevelt Dam Kttttsevelt Lake Construction work limits how much runoff 1 Lf7 W-V I Mormon Flat Dam A yr 1.

XJ jfyX- I CamonLake jhf I Soli s-XH 'll the dam can handle. Massive runoff could top the dam or make it fail. i ii. K- V.X. f360h- Superstition western Canal Vl Mountains Joe Wllhe Smith, Gus WalkefThe An2ona Republic This is the first of a two-day series exploring the danger of a catastrophic flood hitting the Valley 4 By Randy Collier and Charles Kelly The Arizona Republic As many as 100 adoptions arranged by Southwest Adoption may be voided if the state Department of Economic Security cannot figure a way to keep the crumbling Scottsdale agency operating, a DES official said Saturday.

Belva Stites, a licensing official with the DES, said the situation, which she described as "a horrible problem," involves adoptions that have taken place within the past six months and have not been made final by a Superior Court judge. Southwest's owner, James Med-lock, has not turned over the company's records to the DES, she said, but it is believed there are about 100 pending adoptions involving families from various parts of the United States, including Arizona. The Arizona Attorney General's Office has filed a civil suit against Southwest Adoption and Medlock, accusing them of fraud and breach of contract. Medlock operates the for-profit Southwest Adoption Center and its non-profit affiliate, Southwest Adoption Agency. Medlock has refused to comment on the advice of his attorney.

His attorney could not be reached for comment Saturday. Under Arizona law, an adoption can't be made final until at least six months after a baby is placed with a family. Before being made final, a post-placement supervision report has to be made to the court. The adoption agency has the responsibility of investigating the families and prepar- See UP TO, page A 12 JiiwM ft- MmW while upstream dams are rebuilt, the area history of floods and efforts to protect residents. By Steve Yozwiak The Artzone Republic For more than three months, state and federal officials have been on a daily alert, monitoring water flows into the reservoirs behind dams on the Salt and Verde rivers upstream from metropolitan Phoenix.

Their worry? Mother Nature has conspired to dump more water on Arizona this past winter than any in a decade, and at the same time, a massive construction project at the aging Roosevelt Dam has left the Valley more vulnerable to a catastrophic flood than at any time in years. Worse, more snow and rain and higher temperatures are expected in the next few weeks, on top of the huge snowpack and saturated soil throughout central and eastern Arizona mountains from a series of earlier storms. "It's just incredible what's been going on here," said William Rohwer, coordinator of Arizona dam-safety studies for the federal Bureau of Reclamation. If water managers are lucky, spring will bring mild temperatures, the snows will melt slowly, and rains, if any, will be light. Then, they can start worrying about the next five years.

The bureau is handling more than $600 million worth of construction to fortify and expand the capacity of central Arizona dams projects designed to control the largest floods expected in the See WET, page A4 Ex-convict taunts Tyson Inmates gonna foul him up' Inside Coma-case figures defend right to die See Page Bl i Jit El H8 H8 E12 Fl A2 Arts Plus Astrology Bombeck Books Business Chuckle '4 Viw- tl. Classified CL1, B6 Cook H2 Charles KrejcslThe Arizona Republic A massive construction project at Roosevelt Dam, the colossus of a dam system along the Salt and Verde rivers, has left the Valley more vulnerable to a catastrophic flood than at any time in years. By Michael Katz New York Daily News NEW YORK Former boxing champion Mike Tyson has said he doesn't know how he will deal with prison. An old acquaintance, an expert on these matters, says Tyson had better opt for preventive custody. "He tries going general population, they're gonna foul him up, beat him up, cut him up," said Mitch Green, who just finished a six-month stint at Rikers Island for drunken driving.

"Jail is like this: It's a man's home; and rape, molesting babies, robbing old ladies, you can't live with us. We're gonna beat you up. That's jail. He gotta go preventive custody, PC. Got to.

"They don't like rapists. That's somebody's mother, somebody's daughter. That's a woman. He gotta be in solitary confinement, otherwise there'll be four, five guys, got nothin' to look forward to, got nothin' to lose, be beatin' him up. You beat up a cop, See EX-CONVICT, page A 10 Dear Abby Editorial Life Montini Movies Obituaries Outdoors Perspective Prayer Puzzles Real Estate Snorts Sun Living Travel H8 C4 HI Bl E15 B9 D9 CI A2 H6 CL1 Dl SL1 Tl jLong-distance rates starting to inch up Mitch Green "Jail is like this: It's a man's home; and rape, molesting babies, robbing old ladies, you can't live with us.

We're gonna beat you up. That's jail." The boxer is shown in a 1988 photo taken after a street fight with Mike Tyson. Jumping through the discount 'hoop' can beat trend hoops," said Mark Foster, a policy analyst for San Francisco-based Consumer Action, which released its survey Thursday. In its 12-call sample, the group found that American Telephone Telegraph charged a total of $20.50, up 0.44 percent from last year; MCI charged $19.87, a 1.22 percent increase; and Sprint See RISING, page A6 A20, Bl CL15 CI Weather Wheels Willey By Kathleen Ingley The Arizona Republic For years, consumers have paid less and less for out-of-state long-distance calls, i No more. 1 For the first time since the breakup of the Bell System in 1984, the cost of interstate long-distance service is climbing, a consumer's group has found in its annual survey of phone rates.

The best way to beat the trend: Sign up for a discount calling plan. "You'll save money if you jump through the 4.