New Orleans: finding its feet, five years on from Hurricane Katrina
Nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina, Helena de Bertodano sees New Orleans gear up for Mardi Gras.
Telegraph co.uk.By Helena de Bertodano
Published: 11:00PM GMT 12 Feb 2010
"New Orleans is coming back – slowly but surely," cries Kermit Ruffins, the jazz trumpeter. The crowd packing Vaughan's Lounge, a jazz and blues club on the seedy side of cool, waves beer bottles and cheers. Between sets members of the audience load their plates with red beans, rice and spicy sausage. The band is not called The Barbecue Swingers for nothing. "When you put music and food together, you have the biggest party ever," says Ruffins, summing up the essence of the city too. It is late on a Thursday night and, judging by the atmosphere here, the city is still vibrant.
Elsewhere, it is a more complicated story. New Orleans is still struggling to get back on its feet after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, followed by the wallop of the recession. Even now, nearly five years later, thousands of people are still displaced and parts of Lower Ninth Ward, which bore the brunt of the flooding, are a tangle of weeds. Throughout the city, many properties are boarded up and businesses have limped to a standstill. Signs advertising "75 per cent closing down sales" are almost as rampant as the weeds.
Yet New Orleans has always been a city that knows how to party – and today marks the beginning of Mardi Gras celebrations, with more than 50 parades scheduled between now and Fat Tuesday. For weeks the locals have been preparing fantastic costumes and masks and decking the city out in purple, gold and green, the festival colours.
This year the partying started early, thanks to the success of the New Orleans Saints, the local football team, which last weekend won the Super Bowl for the first time, symbolising – to some extent – post-Hurricane recovery. The Louisiana Superdome housed thousands seeking shelter from the storm; winds peeled off the stadium's outer covering and photographs of the damage became iconic Katrina images. One year and $185 million later, the Superdome reopened.
At Jackson Square in the French Quarter, there is little of the usual bustle – partly because it is a cold, rainy day. A beaten-up red Chevrolet from Alabama, full of elderly tourists, bumps down the steps into the pedestrian area. "Whoa," shouts a trombonist playing outside Café du Monde. The car does a three-point turn and bumps back up the steps, careering off.
Even Bourbon Street, a party artery during Mardi Gras, is almost deserted. Only a handful of tourists stroll the street, drinking Huge Ass beers. "Two drinks for the price of one," shouts a barman at a tawdry daiquiri bar. "THREE for one here," calls a barman from a neighbouring bar, equally empty. Both men collapse laughing: it takes a lot to dampen the "Nawlins" sense of humour.
In stately St Charles Avenue, where Mardi Gras parades pass, "For Sale" signs sprinkle the driveways of several of the showiest mansions. Even the landmark Brown House, a 14,000 sq ft Romanesque Revival monster, is on the market.
A potential bargain? Not exactly: I find out later the price is $6 million.
For this is one of the ironies of the hurricane: it has helped cushion New Orleans against the worst of the recession. On almost every street, you hear the sound of hammering: reconstruction work means that unemployment is lower than elsewhere and house prices have dipped less too.
So today, as Jackson Square throngs with revellers, the city's old catchphrase feels almost genuine again: "Laissez le bon temps rouler."
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