Below are a couple of Lafayette stories getting national media attention.  We are hoping the government reads and reacts to these. 

''I keep using the Volkswagen analogy," said Dan Rosenfield, dean of enrollment management. ''A Volkswagen will seat four comfortably, and I have seen six or maybe seven teenagers crammed into one, but at some point there is a limit to how many people you can get into that Volkswagen."  City-Parish President Joey Durel said he expected Lafayette's population of 112,000 to rise by about a third in what he called ''unnatural growth," which will affect all aspects of life and government.  More from http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/09/expecting_population_surg...

This is a redacted report from a friend on the ground in Lafayette, LA.  It's verbatim.  "It actually couldn't have been a worse experience; a team of us were working to put up a website with directions to every Red Cross shelter in the region when we were evicted from the computer room by the Secret Service.  There's only one room in the Cajundome with telephones and internet access for refugees, and Laura Bush shut it down for eight hours (along with the food service rooms to the side and the women's showers).  You may have seen it on CNN; apparently seven refugees were allowed back so Laura could help them in front of the cameras."  More from http://hal-law.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/4/124532/7736