But after two weeks of negotiations that went all the way to the assistant secretary of the Army, the effort failed. Mr. Graves said that the corps put a gun to the state's head by warning that a delay in the contract could mean that the Industrial Canal project, which is vital to 100-year protection, would not be completed by 2011. The agency also said that the 2009 completion of an interim gate to protect against storm surge traveling through the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway would be in jeopardy.

Faced with that threat, Mr. Graves signed the partnership agreement. But in a memo to Louisiana congressional staffers, he said he did so with "great reservations" because the document didn't reflect lessons learned from Katrina.

"The bottom line is that there is nothing in this contract that could prevent the corps from placing cardboard boxes in front of homes, calling it 100-year level of protection, then requiring the state to assume responsibility and liability," he wrote.

The corps obviously isn't stacking up boxes. Plans to protect the Industrial Canal from storm surge entering from Lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain call for gates, levees and floodwalls that could cost as much as $1.15 billion. The contract for the first phase, which the corps awarded this week, was $695 million.