Synopsis
Two towns lie in the valleyone bustling and thriving, the other submerged and forgotten, intentionally flooded beneath the waters of a big new dam. Jay Harper's mind is on the old town as he rows across the lake, stone buildings clearly visible beneath the placid surface. He doesn't know why he has come to see this place, but something inside him a premonition has led him here. The new town has long since forgotten the silent warning of the old, and now ambitious entrepreneurs are trying to get the dam enlarged. But some, like Jay Harper, suspect the dam may not be safe. Trained as a geophysicist, he thinks the dam is too big, even as it is. There have been earth tremors, and bad weather is brewing. At any time, the dam could unleash its waters across the valley, blindly crushing everything in its wake. "Think of Johnstown in 1889," he says to disbelieving ears, "only this could be worse, much worse, with the whole city downstream." As factions in the town battle one another, the danger grows. This is a riveting suspense adventure story, filled with action and flesh-and-blood characters, as well as fascinating information about dams, floods, and the ways in which people cope with disaster. Here we see human ambition and ingenuity face to face with the brute forces of nature.
