by Gary Hansen
Julie felt Greg swerve hard right and looked up in time to see a stalled boat in front of them. A family with kids was standing up waving their arms to be seen. She guessed Greg had missed the boat by less than ten feet. The family would be lucky if they lasted another five minutes before they got hit. When Julie looked back, the stranded boat had disappeared, lost in the chaos behind them. Julie offered a silent prayer for the small family.
* * *
6:30 p.m. - Grand Canyon, Arizona
David looked around. The sandy beach where they had landed was now completely underwater. David and Keller were standing in waist-high water while holding the raft. Everyone else had already climbed in, not because they wanted to go anywhere in the rubber boat, but because they couldn't stand the cold water. David could feel the cold swirling around his thighs and felt it sapping the heat out of his body. He sensed his teeth were close to chattering.
For the last few moments he had been thinking about the final scenes of the movie Titanic, when thousands of passengers froze to death in only a few minutes in the icy water. How ironic was it that this could happen in hundred-degree desert air? Although David could see no ice floating in this water, he knew most of it came from the bottom of the Glen Canyon Dam, and was probably in the forties. He wouldn't freeze to death as fast as the victims on the Titanic, but he would die of hypothermia just the same if he stayed in the water long enough. As he felt the water creep up around his waist, he wondered how long he could last. 45 minutes? An hour?
Afram peered down at him. "You want to switch?"
David shook his head. "Wait 'til my teeth start chattering."
Afram nodded, but nobody laughed at David's attempt at humor, not even David.
"We're not going to be able to do this much longer anyway," Sam pointed out. "The water'll be too high in a few minutes."
Judy pointed toward the main channel of the river. It was running even swifter than before, and new rapids had emerged where the river had been smooth. "Well, we can't go out there, either."
Becky sobbed, "Why is the water doing this?" Sam put his arm around her.
David agreed. "They should have warned us if they were going to let this much water out of the dam."
When Keller spoke his teeth chattered. "I don't think this is a controlled release."
"What do you mean?" Judy asked.
Keller continued, "The water must be 50 feet above normal, and we are more than a hundred miles downstream. Opening a few head gates wouldn't have done that."
"Then what could it be?" Afram asked.
Keller looked reluctant to speak, and his teeth continued to chatter. "I wonder if the dam broke."
"What?" David heard himself say.
Everybody talked at once and no one could understand.
Finally, Afram spoke. "If the Glen Canyon Dam failed, then we haven't seen the worst yet. The water will get a lot deeper, won't it?" The question seemed to be aimed at Keller.
Keller nodded. "Keep looking for handholds, or places we can climb. If the dam really broke we'll need to climb out of here."
The group craned their necks upward looking for anything.
Afram pointed about twenty feet above. "If we could just get up there. It looks like we might be able to hike a little from that ledge."
Sam stood up in the raft. "Yeah, I think he's right."
David and Keller, with their backs against the rocks, could not see where the others were looking.
"Unfortunately, these two can't hold the boat while it rises another 20 feet." Judy said angrily.
Afram pointed at something above them. "See that rock outcropping up there? What if I get the rope around it? We could tie up the boat, then everybody could get in."
"Try it," Becky said, wiping tears from her eyes.
David's teeth chattered while he watched Afram make a loop in the end of the rope. Afram secured the loop with a square knot. David was no Eagle Scout, but he felt pretty sure that there was a better knot than a square knot for the situation. Afram must have been thinking the same, because he added a double knot to make sure. Nobody spoke while he coiled the rope, hesitated, then tossed it underhand. David knew Afram had missed without seeing it; he could see it in Judy's face, which contorted before the rope fell back down in the raft. Afram picked it up and tried again. Same result. Sam wanted a turn, and Afram gladly conceded the rope. The water had risen above David's waist, and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably now, but no one noticed. He hoped one of these cowboys learned to lasso quickly, because he didn't think he or Keller would be able to hold the boat much longer.
* * *
6:50 p.m. - Lake Powell, Utah
Julie looked up at the vertical rock walls on both sides of them. After clearing the traffic jam at Gregory Butte, they had been able to go fast for a while before traffic thickened and the water became rougher, forcing Greg to slow again. But the landscape was changing. Just south of Gregory was PadreBay, the largest open area of water at LakePowell. Normally, PadreBay by itself would be a huge lake, but with the water levels so low, most of it had disappeared. The main river channel, normally too far underwater to be visible in the bay, now cut back and forth like a snake. Access to what was left of the bay had been reduced to numerous channels. Most of these channels were impassable, however, since the amount of water draining from Padre into the river was so great. Attempting passage would be like running upstream through rapids.
Greg slowed slightly as they rounded a bend. Up ahead on the left, a waterfall about ten feet high flowed from a side canyon into the main channel. The volume of the waterfall was staggering, and the boats ahead were steering as far to the right as possible to avoid getting sucked under the falls and capsized. Julie cupped her hand over her mouth in horror as she saw a boat upside down next to the falls. She couldn't see anyone in the water, but if they were not wearing life jackets, she wouldn't be able see them, would she? She tried to imagine the Mastercraft being pulled under the falls and taking the brunt of the water. She suddenly knew that the people in the boat were dead.
As they pulled alongside the capsized boat, Greg had to actually accelerate to pull away from the current that pulled them toward the falls. Julie saw what looked like a life jacket bobbing. Her first thought was that somebody was still stuck in there, being bobbed like a toy up and down under the falls. But then she saw the life jacket was empty. She wasn't sure whether it was good or bad. Where were the people?
"Man, that's amazing," Paul said.
Greg nodded. He pointed to the hull of the boat floating upside down. "It looks like it's at least a twenty-footer."
Paul shook his head. "Wonder why they let it get too close."
Greg shrugged. "Maybe they stalled it or something. Without an engine, it would suck you in."
Julie thought of the family they had passed, the one whose boat had stalled in the middle of the channel and Greg had swerved to miss. What would happen to them when they drifted down here? She thought of the little girl clutching her mother. Julie suddenly realized this would not be the last waterfall. All the bays, canyons and side chutes off the river would eventually have to drain into the main channel. Over the next several hours, the LakePowell channel would become a gauntlet of waterfalls.
CHAPTER 21
7:00 p.m. - Hoover Dam, Boulder, Nevada
Grant looked at his watch. This was taking way too long. After everyone agreed a dike made out of sandbags would work, the calls had gone out all over Las Vegas. They expected trucks to start rolling in any minute, but so far nothing. Based on quick estimates from the construction companies, there were somewhere between 75,000 and a 150,000 bags available in the Las Vegas area, although only a small fraction were already full. The remainder would need to be filled. Even if they were full, Grant knew that wasn't nearly enough. A few more calls located a distributor in Los Angeles and a manufacturer in Salt Lake City. The manufacturer was already closed, but the owner had been located on a cell phone and he was arra
nging to get enough staff to ship his entire inventory. Between the two companies, Grant figured they could get another million bags. Speed was a big issue, but cargo planes would be used from both locations. Grant went out on a limb and said the Bureau would pay, and Governor Jenkins pulled a few strings to make it happen.
In the meantime, the construction companies didn't think they could possibly fill a million bags before 5:00 a.m., which was the goal Grant gave them. They estimated they would be lucky to fill a tenth of that. The problem had then become how to fill a million bags in the next ten hours, bags that probably wouldn't be in Las Vegas for a few hours.
"Why don't we ask for volunteers?" asked Shauna. "Anybody with a shovel."
Grant shrugged. "Where are we gonna get enough volunteers on this short notice?"
"They're all watching the news. All we'd have to do is make an announcement on the ten o'clock news."
Grant scoffed. "That would be chaos. What are we gonna do, just tell them to bring their shovels and come on down?"
"Why not?" Fred said, moving over next to Shauna. "Everybody's got a shovel, and right now we need all the help we can get."
Grant shook his head and glared at his friend. "You can't be serious, Fred."
"I am serious. Every time those guys in the Midwest get flooded out, it's always the people themselves that are sandbagging to protect their cities. Don't underestimate the people - they care more than you think."
Grant looked at the two of them while they waited for his response. Actually, Shauna's volunteer idea would probably work if they just had more time. He felt bad for snapping at both of them. He wondered how many volunteers they would need to fill a million sand bags. What if each person filled a hundred bags? That would be 10,000 people. But, a hundred bags seemed like too many for one person; maybe 20,000 people would be better. What about loading and carrying? Better double it again. Grant guessed, to be safe, they would need at least 50,000 volunteers.
Grant held out his hands as if to say slow down. "All right, let's think out loud for a second. What if we asked for volunteers and we got 'em? Where do we want them to go? We'd need to have multiple locations; we can't just have them digging on the side of
Boulder Highway
. And who is gonna supervise them, and distribute the bags? What about light? It's gonna be dark, right? And what about moving the bags when they're full? We're gonna need trucks. We can't have a thousand pickups driving down to the dam to unload their bags. This is a big enough deal that we are going to need somebody to organize it, somebody who can focus specifically on this task."
Shauna and Fred both smiled at Grant. Grant could tell they were both happy he was at least considering it.
"Didn't the governor say the mayor of Las Vegas was here at Hoover?" Fred asked.
"Politicians need to get re-elected," said Shauna. "And politicians are usually great at delegating. The mayor could appoint a bunch of his buddies to head up other groups."
Grant didn't like the way it sounded, but he wondered if there were other types of people who could handle thousands of volunteers better. "What about cops, or firemen? What if we had about 50 cops team up with each group of politicians? Would that be enough supervision for a couple thousand volunteers?"
Fred nodded. "Yeah. That would be good, or even the National Guard. As long as they had uniforms. Then the volunteers would know where to go to ask questions."
"Okay, where do we tell them to go?" Shauna asked.
Grant considered that. He cringed at the thought of 50,000 volunteers scattered along the highway. Their cars would block the road and cause a horrific traffic jam that wouldn't allow the sand bag trucks through to the dam. But where else could they go? The best plan would include numerous locations scattered around the desert. Then they wouldn't conflict with each other; the crowds would be separated and not blocking anything. Unfortunately, Grant didn't know any locations. He wasn't from Las Vegas.
"We'll need some help from the mayor," Grant said. "We'll recommend that he and his staff choose ten or twenty places around Las Vegas with lots of sand and gravel where we can have the volunteers go. We can list the sites on TV. We can have a politician or two head up each spot, with a bunch of police and firemen to support them."
"This could work," Fred said, smiling.
Grant looked at his watch; they were running out of time. "All right, let's go talk to the mayor of Las Vegas. We'll find out what he's made of, see how he handles responsibility."
* * *
7:15 p.m. - Grand Canyon, Arizona
David couldn't believe how far the water had risen in the last hour. Could it be a hundred feet? He thought so. It seemed like ages ago when Afram and Sam were trying to lasso the rock outcropping. Thankfully, they succeeded, but the rope hold had only lasted maybe ten or fifteen minutes before the raft had risen up to the same level of the outcropping. Luckily, by then they found other handholds, and were able to hold the boat without anyone in the cold water. Over the past few minutes the water seemed to be rising a foot or two per minute.
Although the sun was still a few hours from going down, it was already getting dark deep in the Grand Canyon, and David had to look up to see where the setting sun still shown on the east rock faces high above them. Meanwhile the dark water of the Colorado River was making more noise as it rose. David thought he could hear a waterfall somewhere downstream, although that seemed unlikely. Either way, just looking out at the main channel scared him. The water was traveling so fast.
"Look how smooth the water is," David said. "It looks like a lake."
"Except it's moving." Judy motioned with her arm.
Afram pointed to the other side. "David's right. It's perfectly flat and spread out. If I didn't know better, I would think there was a dam just downstream."
Keller spoke. "There is, kind of."
Afram looked perplexed. "What do you mean?"
"Well, GraniteNarrows is at mile 135, and we are probably a mile or less from there."
"What is GraniteNarrows?" Judy asked.
David knew the answer. He had read about it. "It's where the Grand Canyon squeezes to less than a hundred feet wide. It's by far the narrowest place in the whole canyon."
"76 feet to be exact," Keller said.
"How is that a dam?" Becky asked.
"Think about it," Afram explained. He pointed to the other side. "The river is almost a half mile wide, and yet it all needs to fit through the narrows. It's like a dam."
Becky furrowed her brows. "But wouldn't the water just go faster through the notch?"
Keller nodded. "No question. The water has got to be blasting through the gap. But it would still back up, which is what we are seeing here."
Sam spoke for the first time. "The water level would be lower on the other side. It would be like a waterfall."
David cupped his hand to his ear. "That must be the sound I can hear."
"You know what this means?" Afram asked the group.
"What?" Becky said nervously.
"It means that we're lucky that we found this spot when we did. I don't want to even think about what would happen if we had tried to drift toward GraniteNarrows."
David imagined the raft getting sucked through the gap and spit over a hundred-foot waterfall.
The group sat silent for a moment. An explosion echoed through the darkening canyon, making them turn their heads.
"There goes another one," Afram said, craning his head around.
Becky whipped her head around. "Was it upstream or down?" Becky had evolved from jittery to frantic over the last hour. Her voice was now a few notches higher than normal.
The explosive sounds of the rock breaking off and falling in the river was starting to occur every few minutes. Although they couldn't see most of them, one had broken off just across the river about a half hour before in an earsplitting bang that had reverberated off the canyon walls.
"I think that one was way upstream someplace," Keller said reassuringly
. "It sounded like it was a long ways away."
"Not to me!" Becky argued, near tears.
Sam put his arm around her, a maneuver that seemed unnatural to David under the circumstances. David would have been more apt to slide away from her while she was being so hostile, and give her some space.
David considered their situation: water rising a hundred feet an hour, getting dark, raft being held by people's hands grasping the cliff in precarious holds, with no place to stand or hike in a rimmed canyon. David wondered again if they were going to make it.
"Heads up," Keller yelled. He grasped the rock for a better hold.
David felt the raft pulling away from the rocks and he renewed his grip. He thought about GraniteNarrows downstream and gripped harder. Every now and then the current swirled under their raft and tried to pull it out into the channel and downstream. Sometimes these currents lasted a few seconds, and sometimes a few minutes. David's hands ached. He didn't think he could last much longer. After a while, the current let up and David relaxed his hold slightly. He looked up at the sky. Was there a God? He had always believed it, but now he wondered. If there was a God, would he help? David wasn't sure. But there was one thing for sure - it didn't hurt to ask. Without anyone else seeing what he was doing, David nodded his head slightly, then without making a sound he talked to his God. He thanked him that they were still safe, and then he pleaded with him to spare them through the rest of the night.
* * *
7:40 p.m. - Lake Powell, Utah
Greg pulled back on the throttle in response to a large houseboat cutting in front of them. He veered to the right and passed it.
"Look up ahead." He pointed off to the right.
Castle Rock could be seen miles in the distance. Julie noticed they were passing Padre Point on the left, which signified they were beyond the remains of PadreBay, and were entering the narrows. The narrows did not look much different from before except now the walls were much higher. The waves in this stretch of the lake had always radiated back and forth between the cliffs, which sometimes capsized smaller boats. But, Julie had never seen it this rough and she held on as the Mastercraft rocked violently.