Other states, from New Mexico to Massachusetts, have followed. And it's a good thing, too, as dividing the human toll of this unprecedented disaster into more manageable bits may be the only possible way to help the thousands of people who so desperately need it.

The blanket of political finger-pointing covers the Gulf Coast almost as deep as the floodwaters, and spreads as far east as Washington, D.C. Tensions are high, nerves are raw, heads are demanded on silver platters.

But Utahns, untainted by any of that mud, have simply stood up and found a way to help.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and other state officials have taken the official lead, homeless activist Pamela Atkinson has provided her usual level-headed spark, and everybody from Utah National Guard troops to Salt Lake City and County firefighters and rescue teams have practically had to be restrained from rushing in where FEMA feared to tread.

By Labor Day, some 600 refugees from the swamped and lawless Gulf Coast had found their way to the Camp Williams Army National Guard training site in Bluffdale. The Jordan School District is ready to provide the children among them with the stability of a school day, whether at the base or in regular schools.

(Like Atkinson, we'd vote for a special school at Camp Williams. Despite a commendable federal law that bans segregating homeless students from the general population, the last thing these folks need is another degree of separation.)

Individual families, many with the large homes that accompany Utah's typical larger families, were posting notices on the Internet and elsewhere volunteering their extra space to the homeless.

Here, as elsewhere, government and private job placement services are looking to match refugees with suitable employment, which they will need whether they return to their old homes in a few weeks or decide that they have nothing to return to.

If the rest of this welcoming goes as well as the first few days appeared to, it would be no surprise to find that not a few of them will choose to stay.

Despite a little culture shock, our new neighbors may find Utah is just what its founder said it was 158 years ago: "The right place."