The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (83 page)
Authors: Kevin Fedarko
“I knew
exactly
who it was”
: Ibid.
Thomas wondered, where did his truest allegiances
: Ibid.
Grua was focusing on another ritual
: Author interview with Petschek.
“Do you think I should cut right?”
: Ibid.
“You don’t have a chance of doing it”
: Ibid.
“What the hell are you guys thinking?!”
: Author interview with Thomas.
exclaiming to himself,
No, no
: Ibid.
“I remember looking downstream over the front”
: Steiger, “Speed,” 167.
“It was perfection in a hole”
: Ibid., 169. Also see Grua, “Oral History,”
Boatman’s Quarterly Review
, Winter 1997–98.
“The flip was instantaneous—there was nothing”
: Steiger, “Speed,” 167.
determined not to let go because they were the
: Ibid., 168.
“What a stupid thing to do!”
: Author interview with Reynolds.
“I’m three feet underwater and I’m wiping my head”
: Ibid.
“get to the boat—
get to the boat
”
: Ibid.
“It was just
boom
. . .
boom
”
: Author interview with Petschek.
“I don’t even know if I knew in which direction”
: Author interview with Reynolds.
“I don’t want to get back in that”
: Ibid.
What the hell are you doing?
: Ibid.
“Wow, I’m glad I didn’t hit you, man”
: Steiger, “Speed,” 171. Later recounted by both Petschek and Reynolds in author interviews.
23: The Reckoning
“Is it wise to go on?”
: Powell,
Diary
, 137–39.
John Thomas reached immediately for his two-way radio
: All details of John Thomas’s actions come from an author interview with Thomas and from
Case Incident Record No. 831941.
When Sauer heard that there
: See
Case Incident Record No. 831941.
“You see the boat?”
: The dialogue between Thomas and the pilot of Helo 210 is according to Thomas’s recollection in an author interview with Thomas.
“At that point, we were very demoralized”
: Steiger, “Speed,” 172.
They looked at one another, each man seeking confirmation
: Author interviews with Petschek and Reynolds.
shaking their heads in disbelief
: Author interview with Petschek.
When they thought about this—and each man did, separately
: Ibid.
They were even prepared to try to politely explain
: Ibid.
all three boatmen now caught a kind of second wind
: Ibid.
“How was Crystal?” he yelled
: Ibid.
Dale wasn’t entirely sure whether he should be
: Author interview with Regan Dale.
Stoner had spent the past two days monitoring a constant stream of detritus
: Stoner, “Oral History Interview.” Also see Steiger, “Speed.”
Stoner returned the greeting by
: Stoner, “Oral History Interview.” Also see Steiger, “Speed,” 172–73; and author interview with Petschek.
“We need to find out where that dory is”
: Author interview with Thomas.
“herds of startled deer bounding through”
: Powell,
Exploration
, June 1, 16; cited by Dolnick,
Down the Great Unknown
, 41.
“We’re not through yet,” barked Grua
: Author interview with Reynolds.
“Rudi was in the driver’s seat”
: This quote is from Petschek’s recollection in an author interview with Petschek, who insists to this day that Grua’s memory was faulty and that he, Petschek, did not row Lava Falls. Also see Steiger, “Speed,” 173.
24: Beneath the River of Shooting Stars
“And forever, beyond the mysterious river’s farthest shore”
: Wolfe,
Of Time and the River
, 514.
chief among them the fact that they could no longer see where they were going
: Author interview with Petschek.
The trip leader was one of the company’s
: Author interview with Roderick Nash.
several members of his crew speculated
: Ibid.
and whatever their purpose, mused Nash
: Ibid.
“Watch out for 205—it’ll eat you alive”
: Author interview with Litton.
Grua awoke with a start and
: Author interview with Petschek.
How could they have been so feckless?
: Ibid.
Wren had shut down
: Ibid.
Without a word, he passed the oars
: Ibid.
he had shared a conversation with Wally Rist
: Ibid.
Petschek was forced to concede
: Ibid.
Grua reached into his locker and
: Ibid.
Okay, wait
. . . , ordered Grua
: Ibid.
seizing his conch shell, which boatmen
: Ibid.
25: Tail Waves
“The current that with gentle murmur”
: Shakespeare,
Two Gentlemen of Verona
, 56.
the telephone rang in Tom Gamble’s office
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives. Also, author interview with Burgi and Burgi’s notes.
On the other end of the line
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives.
“Hydrographs look terrible”
: Burgi’s notes and author interview with Burgi.
send even more water
: Moyes, “Cavitation Damage to Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 17. Also see “Spillway Discharge Tables,” Denver E&R Center. Also
see Burgi et al., “Operations of Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 261.
into their beds and sleep for two solid days
: Author interviews with Petschek and Reynolds.
Helo 210 was making a beeline
: Ghiglieri, unpublished manuscript, “Chapter Six: High Water in the Great Unknown.”
“BuRec will release 90,000”
: Ibid.
At 7:00 p.m., all three men watched as the mechanics
: First they raised the east gate 9.3 inches and sent 25,000 cfs racing into the east tunnel. An hour later, the gate cables on the opposite side of the canyon were
lowered
2.1 inches, reducing the flow through the west tunnel from 15,000 to 10,000. The combination of raising and lowering, when combined with the discharge from the power plant and the river outlets, added up to 80,000 cfs. See “Spillway Discharge Tables,” Denver E&R Center.
Burgi, who had walked out on the service deck
: Author interview with Burgi.
“Well, we’re not gonna see that again”
: Ibid.
than it had ever done: 92,000 cfs
: Burgi et al., “Operations of Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 261. Also see Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives; and Moyes, “Cavitation Damage to Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 17.
During the next thirty-six hours, as the engineers
: Burgi et al., “Operations of Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 261. Also see “Spillway Discharge Tables,” Denver E&R Center. Also see Burgi notes; author interview with Burgi.
the hydraulics dramatically weakened
: Kieffer, “Hydraulics and Geomorphology of the Colorado River,” in Beus and Morales,
Grand Canyon Geology
, 365.
As the height of the explosion wave decreased
: Ibid., 375.
At 9:15 a.m. on Thursday
: Exact date: June 30, 1983.
word arrived from far upstream
: “Report of Telephone Call,” Bureau of Reclamation Division of Design, to Peter Grey, Sup. Civil Engineer, Concrete Dams, Spillways and Outlets, E&R Center, Denver; from Bud Bay, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 30, 1983.
the engineers at Blue Mesa Reservoir
: “Report of Telephone Call,” Bureau of Reclamation Division of Design, to Peter Grey, Sup. Civil Engineer, Concrete Dams, Spillways and Outlets, E&R Center, Denver; from Larry Anderson, Chief, CRSP Power Operations, Curecanti Field Division, Montrose, Colorado, 11:40 a.m., June 30, 1983.
Soon, similar reports were trickling in
: Burgi notes; author interview with Burgi.
“on the back side of the hydrograph”
: “Report of Telephone Call,” Bureau of Reclamation Division of Design, to Peter Grey, Sup. Civil Engineer, Concrete Dams, Spillways and Outlets, E&R Center, Denver; from Lee Morrison, UC-430, Regional Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, 9:15 a.m., June 29, 1983.
At 1:30 p.m., Gamble ordered the gates
: Faxogram to Regional Director, LBR, Boulder City, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah; from Assistant Commissioner, Engineering and Research, LBR, E&R Center, Denver, Colorado; subject: Conference Call of June 29, 1983, Monitoring and Status of the Colorado River. Also see Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 7.
billions of dollars—was filled to the brim
: Cox, “Raging River Scuttles Forecasts.”
just under fourteen million acre-feet of water into that system
: Ibid.
making it easily the biggest flood in sixty-six years
: It is important to note that floods of greater magnitude had overtaken the Colorado during this time—in particular, during the late 1950s—but none of those floods was sustained for as long as the runoff of 1983.
everyone stood back and waited until, around 1:00 p.m.: Faxogram from Robert Towles, Regional Director, LBR, Boulder City, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah; to Assistant Commissioner, Engineering and Research, LBR, E&R Center, Denver, Colorado; subject
: Conference Call of July 15, 1983. Also see Bureau of Reclamation Lake Powell Reservoir Tables. Also see Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 11.
the surface of the reservoir finally crested at 3,708.34
: Summary of 1983 River Operations, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 6. Also see Burgi et al., “Operations of Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 262.
quivering, for almost twenty-four
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 22.
the waters began to recede
: Ibid.
When the steel plates slammed shut
: Wolf, “How Lake Powell Almost Broke Free.” Also see Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives.
workers prepared to go into the tunnels
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 12.
a rubber raft loaded with battery-powered
: Rusho, “Bumpy Road for Glen Canyon Dam.”
encountered their first big surprise
: a sandstone: The dimensions of the boulder were eight feet by fifteen feet by fifteen feet. See Burgi et al., “Operations of Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 262.
sat directly in the middle
: Keys, “The 1983 Flood,” 30.
They christened it House Rock
: Rusho, “Bumpy Road for Glen Canyon Dam.”
were the skeins of rebar
: Ibid.
like the bones of a poached fish
: For this image, I’m indebted to Steven Hannon, “The 1983 Flood at Glen Canyon,” 2003,
http://www.glencanyon.org
.
The base of the elbow
: Rusho, “Bumpy Road for Glen Canyon Dam.”
retraced their steps back
: Moyes, “Cavitation Damage to Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 18.
so they called it the Big Hole
: Keys, “The 1983 Flood,” 30.
It was 134 feet long, 15 feet
: Burgi et al., “Operations of Glen Canyon Dam Spillways,” 262.
Phil Burgi’s missing hard hat
: Author interview with Burgi.
the latticework of rebar
: Rusho, “Bumpy Road for Glen Canyon Dam.”
performed by the Loizeaux
: Author interview with Falvey; confirmed by documentation in Reclamation Archives, Denver.
and the slots were finally tested
: Rusho, “Bumpy Road for Glen Canyon Dam.”
virtually eliminating the possibility of cavitation damage
: The rings, which were four feet wide, four feet deep, and twenty-nine feet long, were the largest ever designed by the bureau. “BuRec Blasts Tunnel Repairs,”
Engineering News-Record
, December 8, 1983, 11. This technology was first used at Yellowtail Dam in 1967. During the 1980s, the same technology was also placed in each of Reclamation’s tunnel spillways on the Colorado River Basin, Hoover Dam, Blue Mesa Dam, and Flaming Gorge Dam.
As Gamble would hasten to point out
: Author interview with Gamble.
The sale of that electricity
: Keys, “The 1983 Flood,” 31.
flooding overwhelmed hundreds of homes
: Schmidt, “Floods Along Colorado River.”
over the bureau’s objections
: Ibid.
more than $80 million
: There was more than $12 million in property damage, the worst of which occurred in an area known as the Parker Strip, a sixteen-mile stretch of the river south of Needles that was lined with restaurants, casino resorts, and marinas. US General Accounting Office, Washington, DC, “Statement of Robert S. Procaccini, Senior Group Director, Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division, Department of the Interior, before the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science and Technology, on the 1983 Flooding of the Lower Colorado River,” 3.
as the remnants of the flood raced past
: South of Yuma, 25,000 cfs flowed into Mexico, a rate that was roughly four hundred times normal. See “Colorado Flooding Peaks,”
Engineering News-Record
, July 7, 1983, 13.
received its largest infusion
: Ibid.
“The bureau knew damn well”
: Udall, “Floods Reveal Water Policy Chaos.”
“monumental miscalculation”
: Cox, “Raging River Scuttles Forecasts.”
