Paulie, you're doing a heck of a job

The president of St. Bernard Parish called in to a radio show today with some interesting information. First, the number of houses found to be habitable in his parish: one. That's right. In a parish of 680 square miles with a former population of around 65,000, there is one house in which people could live.

The parish president said there was a large area that had to be cleared of damaged trailers before new ones could be brought in, but no one hired by FEMA ever showed up to do the job, as contracted on October 21. Now the lot is being cleared, anyway, and could hold about 800 trailers, but FEMA has not brought them in to St. Bernard. He knew of 3,000 trailers lined up and ready to go. He also said he had yet to lay eyes on Donald Powell, who is overseeing long-term hurricane recovery in the Gulf region.

Meanwhile, back in my parish, I went to the grocery store where I heard temporary Baton Rouge residents chatting about those, you know, St. Bernard people who were invading our parish. They spoke in whispers and laughed among themselves. Why they were putting on airs, I don't know, because their other topic of converation was how put out they were that the local Wal-Mart is currently open only 12 hours a day.