The only upside was that over the last four hours of looking over the 300-foot ledge, David was finally becoming more comfortable with heights. It still scared him to look down, but nothing like the first time this morning. Gone were the shakes, sweating, and dizzy spells. Now it was just subdued fear.
The last four hours had oscillated between conversation and silence. They had speculated over and over, all the possible ways for their friends to have survived. But logic told him otherwise. It would be a miracle for any of them to be alive.
The second most popular topic had been how to attract the attention of the helicopters. They had discussed ways to get their attention: noise, fires, mirrors, all to no avail. They did not have the resources to communicate in any of those ways. They agreed that something visual had to be done, and waving arms hadn't worked the previous times. A smoky fire would be best, but all they had at their disposal was rock. Afram had suggested that if only he could throw a rock and actually hit the helicopter, they would be noticed. But both David and Judy knew that the probability of making contact was extremely small.
They needed something to draw the pilot's eyes upward. All three agreed that seeing something catapulting down the cliffs would do the trick. And that ultimately had given them their final idea.
"I think I hear one." Judy cupped her hand to her ear.
David stood and listened. "I can't hear any―"
"I hear it too!" Afram said. "Get ready!"
David crouched and so did Afram. Judy would be first. They had agreed on the sequence in advance. David held on to Judy's legs to stabilize her. The helicopter flew around the bend and became visible. Judy threw her life jacket and it started to fall down the cliff. The life jacket fell 75 feet, then hung on a rock outcropping. Judy crouched and David stood and threw his life jacket as hard as he could, the motion almost carrying him off the ledge. David's jacket dropped slightly farther before hanging on some sagebrush a hundred feet below. The helicopter showed no sign of recognition, maintaining its speed and trajectory. David crouched.
Afram, who had assured them his idea was best, rolled a large rock off the ledge that he had worked out of the hill. His lifejacket was wrapped tightly around the rock. The rock fell twenty feet before impacting rock below it. The collision sprayed dust in all directions and catapulted the rock farther down the canyon. In the next impact, it broke into two smaller pieces and the life jacket came off in another spray of dust. The two rocks continued rolling, unsettling other rocks in their path.
"Wave!" Afram yelled.
All three stood and waved their arms. One of the rocks bounced all the way to the river and splashed. The helicopter slowed.
"They saw it!" Judy said, jumping up and down on the small ledge.
"Wave!" Afram yelled again.
The helicopter veered as if it was searching for something. It climbed higher.
"Keep waving!" Judy encouraged. "They're looking for us."
The helicopter climbed and headed directly toward them.
"I think they see us," David said.
Judy shook her head. "Don't stop until we're sure."
The helicopter climbed higher and moved directly in front of them. David could see someone inside pointing at the three rafters.
"Hello." The sound was metallic and came from the helicopter's PA. A man inside the helicopter waved.
David had never been so happy in his life. The three rafters stopped waving, although Judy was still jumping up and down. The men in the helicopter pointed up at the rock cliffs. It looked like they were talking strategy. David realized the helicopter could not get close enough to help them without causing the rotors to hit the cliff. The men inside continued talking and pointing. The rafters waited.
The metallic voice returned. "Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to retrieve you from that location. We'll need to send another helicopter, one that can get you from above." He pointed up.
David felt disappointment that they would be on the ledge longer.
"Don't worry," the voice continued. "We'll be back." The man smiled widely. "Don't go anywhere while we're gone."
And with that, the helicopter flew up the river and was gone.
Spillways one through four were now completely open and the volume of water was scary. Grant guessed that they were each running at eighty percent capacity, needing Lake Havasu to rise only a few more feet to max them out. According to Shauna, just before Charlie opened the gates, Lake Havasu was rising just under an inch every two minutes, which meant the full volume of water from Davis and Hoover was entering the lake. Opening the four spillways had slowed the rate considerably, but it was still rising. They needed the other spillway open.
Charlie's guys had rigged some scaffolding off the downstream side of the dam allowing them to climb down into the spillway itself. Grant now stood on the scaffolding inside number five, looking up at the stuck gate. The metal head gate was designed to slide down two slots in the concrete. Electric motors pulled huge chains to move the gate up and down. With the right side stuck, the left side had dropped enough to wedge the entire gate. One of Charlie's men had climbed up the ladder and was banging on the top of the head gate, where it was jammed. Now Charlie was worried about burning up the motors, since the one on the right started smoking during the last attempt. Obviously, the more pressure on the gate, the harder it would be to break loose, and the rising water on the other side wasn't helping. The worker on the ladder continued pounding mercilessly with the sledgehammer to break it loose. He stopped hammering for a second, mopped the sweat off his brow with his glove, and gave Charlie a thumbs up.
Charlie stood next to Grant, looking up at the worker. "You want to try it again?"
The worker nodded.
Charlie held a radio to his mouth and prepared to have someone inside the dam try the motors, when Grant interrupted him. "Can you separate the motors?"
Charlie shrugged and adjusted his glasses. "What do you mean?"
"Can you try raising it with just the left motor?" Grant pointed up at the top. "That might un-jam it."
Charlie relayed the request into the radio. The response came back that there was only one switch.
"Aren't there separate circuit breakers for each motor?" asked Grant.
The person on the radio answered that there were. Charlie thumbed the radio. "Turn off the right motor, then try to raise it."
They waited for a while then they heard the gate screech and Grant saw the left side move up slightly.
"Stop!" Charlie yelled in the radio.
A couple of the men started cheering, including the man up on the ladder.
"Okay, now turn the right motor back on," Charlie said into the radio. He gave the operator a few moments to flip the switch. "All right, now try both motors down." He motioned for Grant to cross his fingers.
The gate started moving down. The workers cheered again.
"Stop!" yelled Charlie into the radio.
The gate stopped and Grant heard the response from the radio. "What's wrong now? Did it jam again?"
Charlie explained in the radio. "No. But we need to get out of here before you open it ― or you'll drown us all," he added.
That made perfect sense to Grant. He headed for the scaffolding, at the same time noticing the man with the sledge hurrying behind him. When Grant reached the top, climbing onto the safe concrete structure again, he saw Shauna and Lloyd waiting.