The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs responded. “Sir, we have had agents over, under, above, and through the dam. We have two mini-subs of our own patrolling the mouth of Boulder Canyon. There is a no-fly zone in effect, and if any plane infringes upon it, the rules of engagement are to shoot it down.”
“Good,” the President replied. “And Mr. McKay, assume Lake Mead is being filled at a record rate from the breach of the Glen Canyon Dam. How rapidly are you able to drain water from Lake Mead when you open the spigots to the maximum?”
“The internal ductwork of the dam, once you consider the penstocks, the diversionary tunnels, and so on, is very complex. The outer diversionary tunnels were used to control the river when the dam was being built. They’re 50 feet in diameter, and there are four of them. When they were used during the construction, two of them could carry the entire flow of the Colorado River. The flow was much greater then, since the Glen Canyon Dam hadn’t been built yet. The tunnels remain. The inner diversionary tunnels now contain the 30-foot diameter steel pipes that connect the towers to the power plant. They can also be used. I hope I’m not rambling, sir,” Jordan added.
“No. Please go on,” came the command from the Situation Room.
“The four tunnels I’m talking about each have cylindrical gates, 32 feet in diameter and 11 feet high,” said a still nervous Jordan. “These can be completely opened, which I presume is what you meant by turning on the spigots. These tunnels are plugged, and it would be a bit complicated to unplug them; we would have to do it one tunnel at a time, and it would be time consuming. But it can be done. And it would increase our chances of success.”
“How long will it take to drill or blast through these concrete plugs in the tunnels?” asked the President.
“Surely it wouldn’t take that long,” Dan interrupted from the TTIC control room, looking for a moment in the sun. “We have all kinds of armament on or around the Hoover, and there should be enough explosive to drill into and blow up the concrete plugs.”
“Actually, that would be a problem,” said Jordan. “I mean, it would be a tricky bit of work, as you could cave in the tunnels themselves. Especially if you were using explosives. It’s almost like you need one of those gigantic tunnel boring machines that the Swiss and Japanese use for their train tunnels. Remember that the tunnels are also very long, almost three miles all told.”
“Is everybody just plain daft?” snapped Rahlson, not caring that the President was in on the call. “Just a few minutes ago we had Dr. Sandilands from Livermore Labs on the line. Did he not say that he had a few of these focused explosive devices just lying around?”
“I think he said he had a few in storage,” said Rhodes.
“Why couldn’t we use them to vaporize the concrete plugs?” Rahlson asked excitedly. “Don’t you see? If they work like the Glen Canyon Dam device worked, we should be able to knock out the plugs instantly, hopefully without too much damage to the tunnel, given the tight focus of the plasma.”
One of the military advisers present agreed. “You’re right,” he said. “Call Sandilands back. I need to know the size and weight of those devices. We may be able to fit them in the bomb bay of an F-22. If everyone cooperates, we could have those devices mounted and ready to go within an hour. It will take three hours for the water to reach Lake Mead. We have the time to do this.”
“Then get it done. Do it, and I mean do it NOW!” said the President. The edge to his voice was sharp and strident. The man who had volunteered immediately pulled a cell phone from his shirt pocket and began to make a series of calls.
“Here’s the question. With the present intake system set to the maximum, how long do you think we have before the water crests the dam? Regardless of whether the Hoover holds, we need to think about what will happen when the water gets past it.”
After sending several men on their missions in regard to the tunnels, the President had kept Jordan McKay, TTIC, and some of his security advisers on the line to continue their discussion. They needed to be prepared for every possibility.
“I don’t know, Mr. President. But my gut says at least a month before we have to deal with the water cresting the dam, and probably longer,” said Jordan. “I feel confident about that number, as I’ve been looking after the Hoover for many, many years. I’ve directed my people to start mathematically modeling the system. I’m sure that before this is done, we’ll have propeller heads from Harvard to Oxford working on this problem. We’ll be getting the best help possible.
“The important thing,” he continued, “is that this will not happen overnight, or in the next four or five hours. It will take a good month before the Lake Mead water level reaches the top of the dam, and by then I’m sure we’ll have fancy dyking systems in place to protect our downstream users. If we can successfully use all four of the outer tunnels, they should theoretically be able to handle twice the volume of the Colorado River. If we have the penstocks open to their maximum, and all four of the diversionary tunnels, we can probably take three times the flow of the original river. As we speak, engineers are working to figure out how high the dykes downriver should be, and how strong. I’m more concerned, quite frankly, about having reservoirs in place so that the extra water can be impounded, rather than wasted. It’s a dry area, and it would be a shame to send so much freshwater straight to nowhere.”
“Thank you, Mr. McKay. Thank you very much,” the President said. He turned to the men in the room. “Gentlemen, you heard the man. Yes, a major dam has been catastrophically attacked, but we can and will rebuild it. We can avoid any further catastrophe in this situation. There has been significant loss of life, but our country has seen worse. We will recover.”
Turbee watched the footage of the Lake Powell floodwaters propelling themselves through the Grand Canyon over and over again. First a torrent of water, then a cave-in or collapse of some geographical feature, then the temporary damming effect, and then another torrent of water. He had listened to the White House Situation Room interaction between the President and various members of his team. They had a problem. They were assuming a uniform and continuous flow of water. But the video evidence now displayed on all the 101’s showed a very different process at work.
“Here’s what I think is going to happen,” he said, not talking to anyone in particular, but speaking loudly enough to be heard by all. He did not notice that the floor was becoming quiet. They knew Turbee was cooking something up. “People along the shores of Lake Mead,” he continued, “need to get a long distance from that shoreline. If you look at the west end, where all the marinas and people are, this is where the waves will be the most dangerous. We’ll have classic cresting and undertow conditions, like what you saw during the Boxing Day Quake.” Turbee cleared his throat, glad that the meds were now working properly. “We could have waves 200 feet high crashing along the western shore. People have maybe two and a half hours before this starts, but when it starts, if you can see it, you’re probably in trouble.” He was pointing to the western shore of Lake Mead on the Atlas Screen.
“What was that, Turbee? How high will the waves be?” asked Dan.
“He said 200 feet, Dan, maybe more. Pay attention,” George barked sharply.
Turbee carried on as though Dan didn’t exist. He tapped a couple of keys on his keyboard. The map on the Atlas Screen altered slightly. “This is a simulation of what will happen. I’ve put in the shore features, roadways, and so on. We’re in a hurry, so I don’t have all the hotels and motels. But you can see what’s happening. We do have the land’s topography programmed in here, so the area on the map will show how far we expect the waves to go inland. It could easily be a mile. It could be two. I think even people in Boulder City should be thinking about moving to higher ground.”