I don't buy it. There is no way a few million would be enough to build a proper levee system. You are right about that but that is NOT what we are talking about here!
The contractor putting in this levee (for millions) recognized the fact that the substrate (the material upon which the levee was to be built) was not sufficient to hold the weight to be placed upon it in several locations and so informed the Corp. of Engineers in writing of this fact. At the same time, the contractor requested a change order in the amount of $809,000 to correct the substrate problem before proceeding. (This $809,000 would have been in addition to the monies already in their contract for the job.)
The request for change order was denied and the levee was built on top of the known substandard substrate material!
Ok, I do not find it odd that once a project gets going the Corp is not going to easily make changes. My take on the Corp is that it spends too much time dealing with lawyers and not enough engineering. Best news I heard in a long time is the proposal to change the "Endangered" Species Act. We have one nasty little bugger on that list in Florida is not even NATIVE to the United States of America. It would be as if some dope Down-under proposed protecting the cane toad - that bugger is the destructive and nasty pollution machine known as the West Indian Manatee. That particular feral species has all kinds of impacts on Corp related projects.
If you look at the excellent work of jeffers and a couple of nola.com maps and consider the history of the area there is no doubt that the things had to fail. The whole system looks hopeless to me.