BAKER, La. -- At Renaissance Village, a massive emergency trailer park on the outskirts of Baton Rouge that houses some 1,600 evacuees from New Orleans, FEMA briefly banned religious services last month. That seemingly callous move speaks volumes about some of the challenges that the Federal Emergency Management Agency faces: It's trying to run a makeshift town that it wants to shut down after 18 months, and it's providing services to people who it hopes will move away even sooner.

For the "mayor" of Renaissance Village, FEMA manager Michael Cosbar, the church issue is just the latest trailer-park headache that his agency did not anticipate and is ill-equipped to address.