Big Easy a bit uneasy as Mardi Gras returns

NEW ORLEANS - Costumes were donned, beads were tossed and spectators cheered as the city launched into its initial festivities leading up to the first Mardi Gras after Katrina.

But everywhere, hints could be seen of the hurricane's devastating impact. And some visitors were left wondering: Would the event be safe? How well could a police department with 250 fewer officers than last year handle the crowds?

“We wanted to go if we could be assured the city was going to be safe,” said Anne Greenfield, who came with her husband and children, ages 9 and 11, from Lubbock, Texas. “We talked to friends living there a lot before we decided.”

The Big Easy asked similar questions in November and concluded that it could indeed stage a safe Mardi Gras.

That decision will be put to the test over the next few days, with New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebration in full swing.

“I don’t expect any problem,” said police spokesman Capt. Juan Quinton. “We don’t know the number of people that will be on the streets, but we pride ourselves in the safety of Mardi Gras, and we’ll work very hard to make sure that record isn’t marred this year.”

A first round of Carnival parades went off last weekend with no trouble, and the Mardi Gras season began in earnest Thursday night as more parades lumbered down historic St. Charles Ave., where all parades will be limited this year. Crowds were smaller and more local, than usual.

Sprinkled amid the fun were unavoidable reminders of a profound loss — including more than 1,000 deaths and close to 2,000 still missing in the aftermath of the Aug. 29 storm that flattened this vibrant, if troubled, city and a wide swath of the Gulf Coast.

Empty float honors losses
The first sign appeared Thursday night, when the biggest of three parades to roll, the all-woman Krewe of Muses parade, culminated with an empty float to symbolize the area’s victims.

The float, named Mnemosyne after the Greek goddess of memory and mother of the muses, was draped in black, with a swirl of gray and white bedecked with blue flowers. Above it was a banner reading, “We celebrate life, we mourn the past, we shall never forget.”

The nearly nonstop revelry, music and partying will reach its boozy, bawdy climax on Fat Tuesday, the final day of celebration before Ash Wednesday and the solemn Lenten season.

Alex Brandon / AP A float in the Krewe of Chaos parade pokes fun at some of New Orleans' troubles during Hurricane Katrina.

“There are not as many people here as in the past, but I think there are a lot more on the way,” said Mark Page, a New Orleans resident of 16 years who was bedecked in a large, colorful hat and wore glasses with flashing lights. “I think the city will really be jammed.”

Will it? Local medical officials said the number could reach 400,000, less than half the usual 1 million. Such details are of particular concern to them: Only two of the city’s nine hospital emergency rooms are operating for adults. And those, as well as suburban ERs, are typically jammed, even without an influx of hundreds of thousands of revelers.

New Orleans emergency medical facilities in recent weeks have been seeing about 1,000 patients a day, and that will probably double and maybe triple during Mardi Gras, said James Aiken of the LSU Health Sciences Center.

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