Only the Cows Can Come Home

The New York Times reports on Rita evacuees lining up to return:

Mr. Reeves has worked in the last year in Angola, Morocco and Brunei. With a mouthful of Skoal, he described how he had once persuaded customs officials in Luanda to turn a blind eye to a package of Louisiana alligator meat in his luggage.

"Now I can't get past my own deputy sheriff," an irritated Mr. Reeves said, explaining that he was trying to get food and water to his two brothers in Cameron, the most southwestern of Louisiana's parishes, where coastal areas were torn apart over the weekend by Hurricane Rita.

Indeed, at the roadblock, the police and two soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division let the occasional truck loaded with horses or cattle go by but otherwise barred civilians from entering the parish on Monday.