As soon as Lloyd had moved the chopper out of their way the men continued walking toward the concrete structure.
"Look, there are two more guys over by the spillways," Agent Williams said.
Sure enough, two men stood next to the spillways. Grant wondered if they had been inside the structure a few minutes before.
Lloyd moved the helicopter higher and back toward the concrete structure. Looking up where the breach first occurred, Grant saw that over five feet of water was pouring over the top of the structure, both edges being noticeably dirty water. He wondered if the five idiots below had noticed the breach.
Grant reached over in front of the pilot and flipped the PA switch himself. "Attention below. Look up at the top of the structure. The dam is breaking apart.Get out of there! Now!" He flipped the switch back down.
One of the two guys by the spillways pointed up toward the breach, and the other shielded his eyes and looked up too. The water was now tearing into the dike on the right side of the dam. Both men started running toward the pickup.
"About time," Shauna said, obviously relieved.
However, when the two men reached the three who had arrived in the truck, they argued. Grant could tell by their body language, plus they were all waving their arms and pointing. Grant saw the guy with the hard hat shake his head back and forth.
"That idiot doesn't think it's going to fail," said Grant
"Look at the dam," cried Shauna.
Grant looked up in time to see a large piece of the gravel dam break off and fall into the river that was now tearing into the dike on the right of the spillways. Looking down, he saw water standing where the two men had stood only moments before. Glancing to his left, he saw that the two men had abandoned the argument and were running toward the steep road out of the parking lot. But the three that arrived in the truck stood still, gazing up at the spectacle.
"We're gonna have to watch these idiots die, aren't we?" It was Agent Williams' voice in the headphones.
Grant looked up again in time to see another large chunk of earth slough off. Grant estimated the water to now be ten feet deep into the dike. It looked like the stream was equal to one of the spillways. The entire stream was now dark brown from the debris it was cutting.
"Looks like two of them got religion," Lloyd said.
Grant glanced over and saw two of them running, but the guy with the yellow hard hat stood still, staring up at the dam.
When Grant looked back at the dam, he couldn't believe how fast the flow had increased. He'd only taken his eyes off of it for a few seconds. It seemed twice as big as a moment ago. Yet now it dwarfed the volume of the spillways. Another large section broke off and was swept out immediately. Grant could now see Lake Moovalya through the cut.
"Oh my…" It was Shauna's voice.
"It's history," said Lloyd.
For the next few moments, Grant could only stare. The volume of surging water grew at an alarming rate. Large chunks of the dike fell every couple of seconds. A part of him wanted to look down to see if the guy in the hard hat ran, and make sure the others had made it, but his eyes wouldn't let him. They stayed glued to the scene unfolding in front of him. Time stood still. In one final motion, a fifty-foot-wide piece of the dike let go, and the Colorado River broke loose and barreled down the riverbed in a large wave of frothy brown water. The first two guys had climbed up the road far enough to be safe. The next two had reached the truck and were climbing in the back, even as a wave of water smashed into the side of it. The truck started moving and swapped ends. Within moments Grant guessed the water would pull the truck off the elevated parking lot and into the channel. There was no sign of the guy in the hard hat.
"Those guys in the back of the truck need help!" Agent Williams yelled.
Grant saw the truck swap ends again and teeter dangerously as the water moved it toward the edge. Both men waved their arms back and forth. Lloyd reacted and the helicopter headed toward them.
"What are you gonna do?" Grant asked.
Lloyd concentrated ahead on the men. "Their only chance is to grab onto our landing gear."
As they accelerated toward the truck, the truck jerked sideways and one of the men fell into the water. The other one reached over the side and quickly pulled him back in.
"Hurry," cried Shauna from behind.
When the helicopter arrived, before the two men could reach out, the chopper dropped quickly and the landing gear hit the top of the pickup's cab, putting a large dent in it. The impact scared the two men, making them hesitate. Grant could see the terror in their eyes, since they were only a few feet away.
"Why'd you do that?" asked Grant.
Lloyd brought the landing gear over the men's heads and they both grabbed on. Grant couldn't see them anymore, since they were on the pilot's side.
"I had to ground us first," said Lloyd, not taking his eyes off them. "The rotors build up static electricity. We could have electrocuted 'em."
Grant saw that Lloyd was lifting them toward the cliffs above the dam, although the motion was so smooth that Grant felt no acceleration. He wondered how many times Lloyd had done this trick in Vietnam, and how many years it had been since his last attempt.
Grant turned and looked back at Shauna, who sat crouched over looking out at the men hanging on the landing gear. He saw her nodding her head and mouthing words of encouragement to them.
"How're they doing?" Grant asked.
"Hurry," she coaxed, ignoring the question.
When Grant looked forward again, he saw the helicopter had reached the height of the cliffs. Lloyd moved the helicopter sideways until they were over dry land, then lowered slightly.
"They let go," said Shauna. "They're okay."
Lloyd set the chopper down and the men approached, still crouching. Grant saw that the first two had hiked to the top of the road and now came running toward them. Lloyd opened his door.
"Thanks, Mister," one of the men yelled. He was a Native American. All of them were.
"What happened to your friend in the hard hat?" asked Lloyd, also yelling.
"He didn't think it would fail," he answered. "The water got him."
"Well, you guys almost waited too long yourselves."
They both smiled, not in happiness, but in relief. Grant could see their faces. They knew they were lucky to be alive.
Lloyd shut the door and the chopper took off.
"Let's make one more pass over the dam," said Grant.
Grant watched as they headed back toward Headgate Rock Dam. The whole area beneath the dam was now flooded and white caps were visible. The cut in the dam now stretched over a hundred feet from the left side of the spillways. The water level in Lake Moovalya had dropped almost fifteen feet and was no longer breaching the concrete.
Grant shook his head. "Idiots. We warned 'em."
Lloyd spoke without turning his head. "Some guys can't be told. They have to figure it out for themselves."
"Unfortunately," said Grant, "the guy in the hard hat is dead because of that."
When the helicopter passed back over the broken dam, Lloyd looked over. "You want to see anything else?"
Grant shook his head. "No, let's go. Head downstream."
When the helicopter pivoted and pointed downstream, Grant could see the community of mobile homes for the first time since the dam had broken. The entire row of homes bordering the river was gone, torn out. A couple of them drifted in the middle of the channel, but the bulk of them were piled up against the railroad bridge downstream. Most of the second row of mobile homes had held, but water pushed against them. Then, as Grant watched, the second row let go like dominoes, and the river pulled them out into the channel.