Water rides OK'd despite drought

Drought is not stopping Six Flags Over Georgia from operating water rides this summer. The amusement park in Austell has reached an unusual deal with Cobb County. It can operate water rides in exchange for installing low-flow toilets and faucets. The park says more than half of its water use is in restrooms.

Six Flags water rides may go dry

Officials with Six Flags over Georgia are considering the closure of three of its water rides because of the drought.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports officials with the amusement park called a meeting with Cobb County to go over water restrictions. The rides under consideration for closure are Skull Island, Splashwater Falls, and Thunder River.

Cobb County is reportedly looking to the state's Enviromental Protection Division for guidance on restrictions. There is no timetable for a decision to be made.

Six Flags is scheduled to open March 1st for weekends, and May 23rd for daily operation.

Abducted woman found near Six Flags

McConnell-Hancock. (Final Harvest Church)

A pregnant Ohio attorney who had been missing since Wednesday was found alive Saturday behind a suburban Atlanta amusement park, and police said she reported having been abducted. There were no immediate arrests.

Karyn McConnell-Hancock, 35, who is six months pregnant, told Cobb County police that two men and a woman abducted her. She was last seen outside a juvenile court building in Toledo, Ohio, around 9 a.m. Wednesday, police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said.

The suspects reportedly dumped her out of a vehicle in Georgia on Saturday morning, and she wandered to a back gate to the Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park, Pierce said. The woman flagged down a motorist, who called police at about 6:45 a.m. The park is located in Austell, 15 miles northwest of Atlanta.

She appeared to be in good health. The motorist she flagged down described her as disoriented, according to Toledo police spokeswoman Capt. Diana Ruiz-Krause.

Details on where she was between Wednesday and Saturday, descriptions of her alleged abductors and the vehicle they were driving were unclear. Ruiz-Krause said McConnell-Hancock called her husband Thursday afternoon to say she had been kidnapped. Police were unable to trace the call, which was brief.

The woman's car has not been located, Ruiz-Krause said.

By midday Saturday, the FBI had been called in to assist, Pierce said. An FBI spokesman in Atlanta, Stephen Emmett, declined to comment, referring questions to his counterpart in Ohio. The FBI office there declined to make a spokesman available for comment.

McConnell-Hancock had been having trouble with a client and had received suspicious phone calls, her husband told police in Ohio.

Georgia authorities were interviewing McConnell-Hancock Saturday. Toledo police were making arrangements to travel to Georgia and escort her back to Ohio.

McConnell-Hancock is a former city councilwoman in Toledo.

(Associated Press Writers Stephen Majors and Emily Zeugner contributed to this report from Columbus, Ohio)

Teens plead guilty in Six Flags beating

Three teens charged with beating a Marietta teenager outside Six Flags Over Georgia have pleaded guilty in Cobb Juvenile Court. Authorities have not released names of the teens, who prosecutors say will testify against adults charged in the case. They will remain under house arrest until a court determines their sentences. The beating on July 6 left Joshua Martin in a coma. At least ten youths and four adults have been charged.

Reward offered in case of beaten teen

A $5,000 dollar reward is available to anyone with information about the attack on a teenager last week outside an amusement park. 19-year-old Joshua Martin is still hospitalized with head injuries. Witnesses say a group of at least 10 young males attacked Martin Tuesday outside Six Flags Over Georgia near Austell, apparently for no reason. Authorities say Martin, his brother and a friend were jumped while walking to a nearby bus stop. Their attackers escaped on a bus.