As Population Shifts, One Parish's Businesses Boom

It can be quite a feat to find a parking space these days at American Factory Direct, a furniture store brimming with merchandise like $8.99 mini-lampshades with beaded gold fringe and $2,900 dining room sets with bronze medallions and bird's-eye maple inlays. "A lot of people are buying a whole houseful," said Billie Comeaux, who owns the store with her husband, Bob. Since the hurricanes, in fact, people have bought so much furniture that the Comeauxs have quintupled the space in their warehouses, doubled the size of their staff (to 130) and started "burnout sessions" for overstressed employees.

from the NY Times