I would be in mid-making it and a wave would come through and half of it would wash away in an instant, and there's no way to recover it because the tide is coming back.

我在制作途中可能会有个海浪打过来，作品可能有一半立刻会被冲走，但也没有办法恢复，因为海潮很快就会再涨上来。

youdao

It finds all of the places that ended desegregation did not have the predicted tide of whites coming back.

NPR: De Facto School Segregation Growing, Study Says