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“What about the eency spillways?” Joe asked

All ency spillways around theh-volume bypass channels were rarely used

“Co open now,” the supervisor said He watched and counted: “… twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty All gates are open Also the Toshka Canal Within ten seconds, ill be discharging maximum water volume Four hundred thousand cubic feet per second”

Joe heard and felt a great reverberation shaking the building from within He looked out over the Nile down below The water in the tailrace was churning like world-class rapids

Throide open, the spillere duh water to fill a supertanker every fifteen seconds Maybe twice that a over the breach Joe had a bad feeling it wouldn’t be enough If Lake Nasser was full to the rim, it would take hours or even days to lower the water below the level of the breach In that tiap would deepen and the process would continue Joe feared they would never catch up

As the flood raged, the rips of an earthquake But instead of passing, the trereorse

Another huge section of the dam broke off and ru water had swept it away, and now the breach stood two hundred feet wide The outflow froreater than all the other spillways coara Falls

Downriver, the flood swept onward, dragging boats and docks and anything in its path along for the ride Barges and riverboats that took tourists on Nile cruises were torn fro downstream like children’s toys in the bath

The water raced along the banks of the Nile, scouring out the walls in places, undercutting the rock and sandstone and causing landslides and collapses re in the arctic

It surged up over the banks and swept around the hotels and other buildings Ss were obliterated as if they were made of toothpicks One one, replaced by rushing water And this was only the beginning

The supervisor stood silent The major stood silent Even Joe Zavala stood silent They were powerless to do anything but watch

Ninety percent of Egypt’s population lived within twelve ave way, Joe could see a disaster counting its victims in the millions Even as the water spread out over the valley, sparing victiht be worse than the flood

Millions would be hoypt’s farmable land would be flooded and at least temporarily destroyed Dysentery, cholera and all the diseases that come with unsanitary conditions, and those spread by mosquitoes and other insects, would become epidemic

It would only add insult to injury that the daypt’s electricity But when piled on top of the nation’s other probleovernhtyinto anarchy in one fell swoop

“How long before total collapse?” he asked