I should clarify, by dam failure I mean the shell of the old drain pipe from the 40s, which had been plugged when they expanded the pond in the 70s, rusted through completely essentially creating a tunnel through the foot of the dam. As the pond leaked out the bottom, it carved out a bigger and bigger hole through the dam. That old pip was maybe 2 ft from the bottom, so yes essentially a small puddle was left under that pipe, and by small puddle I mean maybe the size/width of a pickup truck bed with maybe a foot of depth. I think it was just a collection area from the rainfall we'd had, and it was stacked with dead fish. But to answer your question yes, the deepest side of the pond was reduced down to that small puddle just under the broken outflow pipe.
