Before heading toward the building, Grant walked toward the rail, followed by the officer. Mist clouds rolled up over them and the entire canyon ledge. The handrail and sidewalk were sopping wet. Grant had looked over the rail before, but he had never seen anything like this.
He could clearly see the column of water exiting the dam in spite of the mist. The sound was deafening and Grant could feel the rumbling in his chest. He tried to grasp the amount of water exiting the dam and couldn't. The hole had grown to nearly a hundred feet now. It looked like it had dug farther down into the dam too. Hadn't Brian told him the original hole reached about two hundred feet down from the top of the dam? Grant now estimated it to be over two hundred seventy feet down. The width had expanded too. The hole was even wider than tall, almost reaching the center of the dam.
A man grabbed Grant's arm, yelling to be heard over the noise, "COME INSIDE WHERE WE CAN TALK." He pointed at the dam. "YOU CAN SEE EVEN BETTER INSIDE."
Grant waved a thank you to the police officer and followed the man into the visitor center. His clothes felt damp. As soon as the door shut behind them, the noise dissipated. He swallowed and his ears popped. The lobby was round with high ceilings. A curved wall shielded them from a wall of windows. Grant was pulled toward the windows in order to get a better view of what was happening below. As he approached, he noticed someone had set up a table and chairs next to the large windows.
The man who grabbed Grant's arm, obviously the security guard, shook Grant's hand. "Glad to see you."
Grant nodded. "Grant Stevens, Bureau of Reclamation. You must be Brian?"
The man nodded his head.
Brian's baby face made Grant wonder if he was old enough to be guarding anything. He had traces of fine blond peach fuzz on his face, which showed that he hadn't shaved for a while. He was shorter than Grant, maybe five foot six. Although his hands were small, when he shook, he gripped hard like a salesman.
"Yeah, I'm the one who called you. You sure got here quick."
Grant looked at his watch. "The Bureau has a small jet. It made a big difference."
There were four other men in the lobby besides Brian, three of whom wore the same security uniforms; the other wore Levi's and a polo shirt. Brian introduced the one without a uniform. "This is Dan Mumford. He's my boss in charge of security for the dam. He just got here."
Grant nodded at the man, then turned back to Brian. "Did your guys get out of the plant okay?"
Brian nodded. "Yeah, they showed up after I talked to you on the plane. Everybody got out. It was a huge relief. As it turned out, the security guy down in the plant got hit by a wall of water and dropped his radio. That's why I couldn't contact them. They went out the access tunnel."
"Well, I'm glad they're all right."
Brian motioned toward the table by the windows. "I've set up a place over there where we can talk, a make-shift command center for lack of better words. The light is better over there. We lost our power a few minutes before you arrived."
Grant looked at the lights. "You lost power? So the water killed the turbines in the dam already?"
Brian looked back. "Yeah, first the main power grids went down. Then a few minutes later the small turbine that powers all the stuff in the dam itself followed. I can only imagine the destruction happening below right now. Anyway, the digital phone system went down with the power, but we found an old analog phone in the back. It still works off the phone company's power; they must be on backup or something. So at least we have a phone."
Grant heard the noise of the water again briefly as someone came in the door. When the door shut, the noise disappeared. A police officer ambled across the floor, seemingly in no hurry. He wore a khaki uniform, about the same color as a boy scout. His face was covered with an extremely bushy moustache that hung over his lips, completely concealing them, and rolling down on the sides of his face to the sides of his chin. The brown facial hair was streaked with gray, giving him a worn look. His eyes seemed to match — red and droopy. Grant couldn't help wondering how the officer could feed himself without getting food stuck in his mustache.
Brian motioned toward the man. "This is Earl Smith. He's the captain for the Page police department."
"Nice to meet you," carried from somewhere beneath the mustache.
Grant didn't remember ever hearing such a raspy voice. He reached out his hand. "Grant Stevens, Bureau of Reclamation."
Earl's hand was rough and cracked like a farmer or mechanic.
The group found chairs around the table and sat down. Grant chose a seat that allowed a good view of the dam. Everybody looked at Grant, an unspoken message that he was in charge. They all looked relieved to have someone new to give orders, especially Brian.
Grant looked around the table before speaking. "Well, first things first. Has everyone been notified, upstream and down?"
Brian nodded. "I called everyone in the red book. That includes the Grand Canyon downstream and Lake Powell's water patrol." He pointed at Earl. "The police closed all access to Lee's Ferry and other roads into the canyon."
"What about the dams upstream?" Grant asked.
Bran shook his head. "They weren't in the book."
Grant pointed at the phone. "Well, we should probably call them too, and shut them down, like Flaming Gorge in Utah, it won't help us for a day or so, but tomorrow, we're going to wish we had."
"How did the Grand Canyon folks react?" Earl asked.
Brian shrugged, glancing around as he answered "Well, that was one of the first calls I made this morning. And to tell the truth, they didn't seem as worried as I would have expected."
"You told them the dam was breaking apart, and they didn't seem concerned?" Grant asked.
Brian looked around. "Well, like I said, that was a while ago, and I didn't want to say anything that wasn't true, so I just told them the facts, you know, that there had been an explosion, and that water was coming out of the dam."
Earl spoke from beneath the mustache. "Better call 'em back and update 'em."
Grant nodded. "So when the first calls were made, they were never told the dam was collapsing?"
Brian leaned forward. "When I made the calls, I didn't know―"
Grant waved his hand to silence him. "That's all right. You just gave them the facts." He stood and walked over to the large windows. He looked down into the canyon as he spoke. "Just in case you guys want an official statement from the Bureau, the Glen Canyon Dam is going to fail. My guess is it'll be gone before noon. Let's get back on the phones and update everyone. Maybe that'll wake up the rangers in the Grand Canyon."
Brian and his boss Dan stood to leave the table.
"Hang on," Grant said, pointing at Brian. "I need to ask you a few more questions. Can you get somebody else to make the calls?"
Brian's boss motioned to one of the guards who had been quiet up to that point and they walked a few feet away from the table and had a brief conversation. Afterwards the quiet guard left and Dan returned to the table.
Grant walked back from the window and sat down at the table. "All right, I want to start with what has happened so far, chronologically. Brian, can you tell us everything you remember? Try to include time estimates when possible."