Grant knew she was right. They couldn't just throw it together, even if they compressed it with bulldozers. If the soil allowed water to seep through, it would wash out. He wondered if they would find the right kind of soil around Las Vegas, where as far as he knew, everything was sand. And everyone knows you can't build a dam with sand.
Grant held out his hands. "How do they build those dikes around the Mississippi River when it floods? It seems like they're always trying to protect some town from getting flooded by the river. Don't they need to be built fast?" He felt helpless. He had convinced the governor, but now he wasn't convinced himself.
"Seems like all the ones I see on the rivers in the Midwest are built out of sand bags," Fred said.
Grant and Shauna both looked up at him. Sandbags? It just might work. Heaven knew there was certainly plenty of sand around Las Vegas. Besides, building a dam out of sand bags would be faster since the layers would not need to be meticulously compressed with heavy equipment. The more he thought about it the more excited he became. A sandbag dike might even hold up if it were overtopped by a foot or two. It could even hold water while it was being built. The question was, where would they get enough bags, and the labor to fill them?
Julie guessed they had been in the traffic jam at Gregory Butte for almost an hour. They were almost out. The narrowest point had only enough room for ten boats to go through the turn at a time. Unfortunately, about 50 lines were merging into the small space. And after living in California, Julie knew what happened during rush hour when cars needed to merge. Boats were even worse. It was like a herd of sheep trying to get through an open gate. Julie was glad the bumpers were out because the Mastercraft had been bumping other boats for an hour. Finally they were only a few boats away. Greg let the boat on his left go past.
"We're next," Greg said. "Everybody sit down."
Paul climbed down off the bow and started pulling in the bumper pads from both sides. As the boat on their right pulled out, Greg pulled in behind it. They idled slowly at first around the bend with the boat almost touching on both sides. As the canyon turned straight again, it widened. As a result, the boats were able to spread out and speed up. Greg gave the boat some throttle.
Julie had been on many crowded lakes before, but nothing compared to this. There were probably between 15 and 20 rows of boats, all going as fast as possible. Greg tried to stay in the wake behind the boat in front of him, but many others were swerving back and forth passing each other. That many boats, traveling that fast, made for rough water. Julie saw Darlene and Max hanging on tight as the boat jarred up and down, sometimes with loud banging noises. Personal watercraft darted between the boats. It reminded her of the motorcyclists in southern California that dart between the cars on the freeways. Even though it was perfectly legal in California, she was always afraid one would go down in front of her and she would run over it.
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.
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.