Mardi Gras revelry brings New Orleans hope

Dancing, drinking revelers crowded the streets of New Orleans last Tuesday as colourful parades rolled through the damaged city on the final day of a Mardi Gras that locals touted as another step in the long recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Thousands lined the sidewalks just blocks from neighborhoods hard hit by the Aug. 29, 2005, storm to beg for beads thrown by masked "krewe" members on passing floats as this year's Carnival season came to an end.

In the French Quarter, people tossed beads - "throws" in New Orleans lingo - from balconies overlooking Bourbon Street where partiers jostled through crowded streets with drinks in hand.

Neither police nor local tourism officials gave attendance estimates, but local experts said crowds for the pre-Lenten celebration that began Feb. 9 were larger than last year, when the city put on a scaled-down Mardi Gras. Before Katrina, the city said 1 million came to town every year.

While merriment was the order of the day, Katrina was still on everyone's mind. "Last year, we showed the country that we were alive and well.

This year we are showing the world that we are ready to return to being the greatest host city in all of America," said Rex, the King of Carnival, from his float after the traditional salute from Mayor Ray Nagin in front of downtown Gallier Hall.

"May god bless the heroic citizens of New Orleans," said Rex, who in real life is local physician Ronald French.

Katrina flooded 80 per cent of the historic city and killed more than 1,300 people when it burst surrounding levees. Many neighborhoods are still in ruins, but the French Quarter and wealthy Uptown area, located on higher ground and where tourists concentrate, were not badly damaged.

The city was mostly abandoned after Katrina, with refugees scattering across the country following days of crime-ridden chaos as help failed to arrive. Only about 200,000 people of the pre-storm population of 480,000 have returned as most homeowners are still awaiting government aid to rebuild their homes.

Crime has been on the upswing, with 27 murders so far in 2007, but did not affect Mardi Gras events.

On Fat Tuesday, many people wore wildly coloured costumes that poked fun at local leaders who have been criticized for letting the city languish in the devastation.

A group of four dressed like characters from the Wizard of Oz and carried a sign that read "Follow the Red Tape Road," in a dig at the difficulties faced by homeowners trying to get rebuilding money from Louisiana's Road Home program.

As is traditional, the predominantly black krewe, or club, Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club led off the final day's festivities with a parade in which they tossed gold-painted coconuts to the crowds.

Zulu King Larry Hammond, in his stop in front of Gallier Hall, decreed that New Orleanians should put aside the city's rebuilding for a day.

But, he added: "I further direct FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), the Louisiana Recovery Association and the Corp of Engineers to report to duty immediately and do what is necessary administratively to bring the funds that are so desperately needed to help in the reclamation of New Orleans," he said.

One hopeful sign was the reappearance of 76-year-old clarinetist Pete Fountain, who was back at the head of his Half-Fast Walking Club after health problems last year forced him to miss Mardi Gras for the first time in 46 years.

Instead of walking, he rode in a small, tractor-towed streetcar, but threw doubloons to the crowd and played Dixieland jazz on his clarinet.

"I'm back and having a good time," he told a local television station.

"It's just been packed and people are really coming out. It's good to see the city starting to come back again."

Reuters