not able to execute query on spatial database.

Hello all,
I am working with spatial tables. i have two spatial data tables,
one represents the whole state and another table represents the damaged
locations in the state. My aim is to find number of damaged locations in
every county or parish.
Here i am giving the query i used to do this, could you please tell me
whether i am doing right thing or not.

select count(*) from damagedlocations l1,county l2 where (l2.the_geom and
l1.the_geom) and l2.parishid=particular_parishid;

thanks in advance.
vamsee movva