[CharlesWayneCT]

I will disagree about this. It was extremely FORTUNATE that the wall collapsed after a Hurricane, when everybody was evacuated.

There was no way to sand-bag a 200-foot wall collapse. If this wall had simply fallen down in the middle of a normal night, you would have had thousands of people drowned before most people had any idea what was happening. And tens of thousands of people stuck on their roofs. And people electrocuted by live power in the water. And fires from gas mains.

The reason the corp was able to stop the leak much easier the 2nd time was that it was no longer a "wall", but was a fat levy, which is easier to put back together.

[sefarkas]

It was only 200 feet (or better) because no one was there to notice the initial slump. Like most things in the real world, things do not change instantaneously. Even in the middle of the night (maybe unlike your town) New Orleans is a busy place. Note that the sound of water filling your backyard and the creaking of the wall as it slumps are likely to make many a neighbor suddenly sit up out of a sound sleep.