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Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Color

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"Had you ever been here before?"

She shook her head. "Not at Hoover. But when I was in high school, my parents took us to Lake Powell. We didn't have boats or anything, but we took a tour boat over to see Rainbow Bridge. We toured the Glen Canyon Dam while we were there. They let us go down and see the turbines and everything. Glen Canyon seems very similar to Hoover."

"Not anymore," said Fred.

Shauna's head turned toward Fred before her eyes bulged. She looked back at Grant. "Oh! I keep forgetting. Was it terrible to watch?"

Grant nodded. "It was amazing and terrible at the same time."

Fred's eyes looked dreamy. "I wish I could have seen it."

Grant tried to visualize. It seemed like weeks ago. "When I left, there were two concrete outcroppings, one from each side of the canyon. That's all that was left of the dam. Lake Powell was running down the canyon like a gigantic river, 600 feet deep. The Glen Canyon Bridge was gone, buried in the bottom of the river."

Shauna's hand went to her mouth.

Grant broke out of his trance and motioned along the crest of Hoover Dam. "Now we have to save this one." He peered over the 600 foot drop to the river below. "If you believe in prayer, say a prayer for Hoover Dam."

7:45 a.m. - Wahweap Marina, Lake Powell, Utah

Julie stood in the Mastercraft and looked east toward Castle Rock at the early morning sun. Hundreds of people must have started hiking at first light. They had formed into multiple lines that snaked over the hill from Warm Creek Bay. It would be hours before they had hiked around Wahweap Bay to the marina. She did not envy them.

She looked down at the water and marveled at how far it had dropped during the night. Was it possible that it had dropped another hundred feet? There were literally hundreds of boats stacked two wide below them on both sides of the launch ramp. Although boats had continued to enter Wahweap Bay the night before, the darkness had halted further attempts. That or the parks service had finally figured a way to prevent boaters from attempting the risky journey.

She wished she could see over to the main channel. What would it look like, with the water so low? Maybe it was too low to permit entry into Wahweap Bay. What if there was some sort of obstruction? What if there were still boats heading south, but they were all being swept over the remains of the dam? She hoped that was not true. She wondered how many people actually had been pulled over during the night. It was unreasonable to believe that nobody had. What if fifty people had died last night? What if a hundred?

"You're awake?"

Julie turned to see Erika walking down the ramp from above, with Paul following behind.

"You ready for breakfast?" Erika asked.

Julie was starving. "Is the restaurant open?" She couldn't imagine it was.

"They're not cooking, with the power out. But they put out some bagels and fruit on a table for the people that are arriving." Erika reached over and ran her fingers through Julie's hair. "Were you able to sleep much last night, with everything going on?"

Julie shook her head. "I might have gotten 15 minutes." She remembered the night being a series of boaters debating whether to ground their boats like the Crawfords had, then after finally doing it, walking up and down the ramp talking to anyone who would talk.

Greg pointed up the ramp. "Has anyone said anything about clearing this off?" He motioned at the slimy surface.

Paul shook his head. "Everybody is asking about it, but I didn't hear any answers."

"Have you seen any equipment show up? Any cranes?"

Paul shook his head.

Greg pointed at the Mastercraft. "Can you watch the boat? I want to go talk to some people."

Erika held out her hands. "That's why we came down here. We'll watch the boat while you guys go up and get something to eat, and get cleaned up. Take your time."

Julie liked the idea. She pulled Greg along and started up the hill.

8:00 a.m. - Hoover Dam, Nevada

The governor had arranged for breakfast to be brought in from the Hacienda Casino. A group of men wearing white shirts and hats carried in the long rectangular silver platters with lids. They set up a buffet along the west wall of the visitor center with a stack of plates on one end. The aroma of sausage, bacon, and maple syrup drifted through the visitor center.

Grant's entire body begged for sleep, and he'd actually considered allowing himself to take a quick nap, but that was before the food arrived. Another urge, more powerful than sleep, changed his mind. His last meal had been cut brutally short by the second bombing. And his stomach now told him that a breakfast buffet took priority over naps and dam discussions.

He, Shauna, and Fred lined up behind Governor Jenkins and Commissioner Blackwell's parties. Phil's team from the FBI lined up behind them. Grant scooped liberally from the first platter, which was filled with bacon and sausage.

"Easy on the cholesterol," Fred said, smiling.

Grant picked up one of the links with his fingers and took a bite. "Hmm… That was worth at least a year of my life."

Shauna smiled. "Don't laugh. It may have cost you a year."

Grant looked over at her. "Since it was my last year, I probably saved myself a year of cancer and chemotherapy."

"Pass the sausage," Fred said, laughing.

With no large table, everyone found wherever they could to sit. Grant's group found three chairs over by the wall. The whole lobby was surprisingly silent as they ate. Grant had to force himself to eat slowly enough to chew. He noticed that even Shauna ate like she didn't know where her next meal would come from.

About half way through breakfast, the governor stood. "Ladies and gentlemen, attention please. I've just received word that phase one of Hoover-Two is officially completed."

The crowd erupted with clapping and some yells. Grant couldn't believe the governor used the "Hoover-Two" nickname.

When the noise settled, the governor continued. "As you know, without Hoover-Two, there would be a waterfall all the way across Hoover Dam right now." More cheers and a couple of playful boos could be heard.

"If all goes well today, the Bureau," Grant noticed that the governor motioned to where he sat, not to where Roland's team sat, "the Bureau expects Hoover Dam and Hoover-Two to be holding back Lake Mead at an elevation of twelve hundred forty four and a half feet, which would be twelve feet over the top of the original Hoover Dam." More applause.

"And some time in the next sixty days, we expect the lake to have dropped back below the concrete, after which Hoover-Two will be torn down again." Grant could tell by looking around that not all had expected it to take that long.

The governor continued. "So, since this is a historic moment, I need everybody to walk out right now," he motioned, "and we're going to take a picture in front of Hoover-Two. Come on. Your breakfasts will wait."

With many still chewing, the group headed out the doors of the visitor center.

Almost an hour later, after the photos were taken and the breakfast was cleaned up, Grant inquired of Shauna as to what was happening downstream. He felt satisfied with what they had accomplished at Hoover and was starting to worry more about downriver.

She pushed her glasses up on her nose and paged through a bound notebook, stopping on her latest entry. "A little before 7:30 a.m., the levels stabilized at Davis Dam. We think the spillways have caught up to Hoover."

Grant considered the information. "Caught up?"

"Yeah. Davis handled the flood, and passed it on, just as we hoped it would."

"Any damage?"

Shauna hesitated. "Well, the level of Lake Mojave didn't rise that far, so ―"

Grant interrupted, "I meant downstream."

Shauna read from her notebook. "They're reporting major flooding in the casinos in Laughlin along the river, including the Edgewater, Colorado Bell, Golden Nugget, and the Riverdale Resort." She looked up briefly. "Basically, anything on the edge of the river is getting inundated. They said that the Colorado Bell has four feet of water running through the lobby."

Grant shook his head. "Ouch. Two months of that and some of those hotels will be floating down the river."

Shauna continued reading from her notebook. "The cities of Laughlin and Bullhead City spent quite a bit of time sandbagging in preparation, and except for the buildings near the river, they've held. So there are a few wet places in the cities, but the major flooding has been contained to the river."

"Well, I guess that's good news."

Shauna continued. "However, just south of Riverfront Drive…" She motioned around with her hand."… where the river curves east, it overflowed and flooded out the Needles Highway."

"Any damage farther down?" Grant asked.

"Maximum flow hasn't got to Needles yet, but we expect it during the next hour. I-40 and the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad's main lines go right next to the river there. The railroad's been trying to build dikes around the tracks for the last 18 hours, but they're afraid it's hopeless. It's their main east-west corridor out of the shipyards in Los Angeles. They average over 25 trains a day through there. A flood would shut 'em down."

Grant rubbed his eyes. "What's next downstream?"

"South of Needles, the river flows into Lake Havasu. Havasu's already rising fast, but it's going to double when maximum flow hits at around…" She turned the page and searched with her finger."… 11:00 a.m. The lake will then quickly fill and top out sometime between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m."