At 16:00 yesterday the opening ceremony for the spectacular new bridge over the Hoover Dam, designed to alleviate traffic congestion on the US93, was brought to an abrupt halt by what is believed to be a terrorist attack.

The massively powerful missile that breached the dam, is thought to have been launched from one of last remaining construction sheds below the bridge, according to eye witness reports.

It appeared to hit two-thirds of the way up the dam wall breaking a gaping hole that sent a torrent of water down the valley. Almost immediately the rest of the 80-year-old dam wall began to crumble from the force of the water gushing through.

It is estimated that half the dam’s 10 trillion gallons of water poured through the wreckage in the first 30 minutes, causing the biggest tsunami ever seen.

Luckily the dam is located in a sparsely populated desert region but more than 60,000 people may have lost their lives in downstream towns such as Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City.

Downstream dams were overwhelmed by the cascading waters of the Hoover Dam. These dams produce electric power, irrigate farmland and supply drinking water to cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego. 85% of Las Vegas’ drinking water comes from this system.

Farmers in Imperial Valley will be hard hit. Their half a million acres of farmland produce more than a billion dollars in fruits and vegetables every year. Until irrigation is restored the land may return to being a barren desert.

Las Vegas, just 30 minutes away, may be uninhabitable. Up to 50 million people could be without power and water for the coming months.

The wall of water passed beneath the dignitaries and news media, gathered on the new bridge for the opening ceremony.

Rumors are circulating that this would have to have been a ‘nuclear device’ in order to penetrate the top of the dam wall. State and federal emergency structures have mobilized all available resources. The army has closed off all roads into and out of the region except for emergency vehicle access.

There are sure to be massive political and economic consequences not dissimilar to 9/11. At this stage facts are difficult to come by as chaos reigns.

ANALYSIS >> SYNTHESIS: How this scenario came to be

Dam disasters are not common but can be hugely destructive.
The towering 860-foot Vajont Dam in Italy was responsible for approximately 2,000 dead in a 1963 accident – but the structure itself suffered only minor damage. A huge rockfall into the reservoir sent an enormous splash of water over the top in a wave more than 80 stories high, sweeping downstream and wiping out several villages.
The mother of all accidents in terms of scale and destruction was surely the 1975 failure of the Banqiao Dam in China (capacity 492 million cubic meters), which was just one of 62 dams destroyed (some intentionally) in a concatenating horror show, the result of record-breaking rains, that left millions homeless and more than 25,000 dead.
A catastrophic failure of the Hoover Dam would have even greater consequences.