Mardi Gras rebounds from Katrina’s impact

‘It’s like a big neighborhood’
Corinne Branigan, 40, wore a brown T-shirt with the slogan, “New Orleans. Established 1718, Re-established 8-29-05,” referring to the date Katrina struck the city.

“This is everything that’s great about New Orleans rolled into three days,” Branigan said. “Food, music — we’ve got the best marching bands in the country. It’s like a big neighborhood. Everything else is forgotten for the time being.”

In the French Quarter, the celebration was more raucous as revelers swapped flashes of flesh for beads tossed from balconies.

Costumes ranged from the glamorous to the satirical.

Judy Weaver, 49, and R.M. Elfer, 50, wore nuns’ habits with camouflage capes as the Angry Little Sisters of the Apocalypse. They carried rulers bearing the slogan “weapons of mass instruction,” and what they called novena bombs — originally, toilet floats — and rapid-fire rosaries.

“We are cleaning up crime in the city,” Weaver said.

Running on ‘three hours of sleep’
Nate Garnache, 30, wore a military-style costume of cardboard and duct tape with beads glued on. He had a beer in one hand and another tucked into his waistband. Ashlye Keaton, 21, wore a pink cardboard-and-bead skirt modeled after Roman armor, pink beads and pink cardboard shield over black knee-high boots and fishnet stockings.

“You become one with Carnival this way,” said Keaton.

Last year’s festivities were scaled down — fewer parades and only about 13,000 hotel rooms available. This year there were 30,000 rooms ready and for the big weekend leading into Mardi Gras, most of them were filled.

“The weekend was surprisingly busy,” said Earl Bernhardt, co-owner of two bars and a blues club in the French Quarter. “The crowd is bigger and they’re spending a lot of money.”

Three parades rolled Monday night, including Orpheus, the glitzy parade founded by singer Harry Connick, Jr. Actress Patricia Clarkson and New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton were celebrity monarchs.

Big crowds lined the parade routes beginning late last week and continued through Monday night. Bourbon Street also was packed with revelers.

“We haven’t paced ourselves at all,” said Tracy Brown, 25, of Dallas. “We got here Saturday and I think we’ve only had about three hours of sleep since then.”

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