In many ways, New Orleans still screams “party” – to glance at parts of the city is to see a New Year much like the old one.
Crowds are still in town for the Sugar Bowl college football game, hotels are rammed and bars and restaurants are open and catering for the festive trade.
Life in the “Big Easy” goes on. Except, of course, it doesn’t – not in the heart of the city. The carnage that happened here haunts this place.
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The famous Bourbon Street, the bucket list destination, remains cordoned off – silent except for the police generators, soundtrack to steady-paced criminal investigation.
The fabled French quarter had been the centre of New Year celebrations. Here, the grim juxtaposition of celebration and shock is sharply defined by reports that hotels with holiday bookings put sheets over guest windows to block the view of the aftermath in the street below.
“Yesterday was a celebration, everyone was happy. This has been surreal, everything changed,” Jane Foster, from Nashville in Tennessee, told Sky News.
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She was in New Orleans to support the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl game against Notre-Dame. But if there isn’t a mood to party, there is a defiance and resilience in a city that’s suffered before.
“New Orleans is going to be back stronger than ever,” Ms Foster went on. “New Orleans is built on coming back from disaster.
“Even before Hurricane Katrina, if you think about their history and all the fires they had. It’s a strong southern town. This is a good community, they’re not going to lay over and change anything.”
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Brad Daugherty had travelled from Atlanta, Georgia, for the football game.
He said: “As long as there’s people this crazy, there’s nothing you can do,” he told Sky News.
“It’s nobody’s fault but his. We’re not going to let them win, that’s what they want. There’s no way we’re leaving.”
It is the spirit of New Year in New Orleans – a resilience in a city that’s suffered and grieves its loss. They will get through it, no doubt. But it’s hard.
