Revelry back in New Orleans

2005-10-02 21:11

New Orleans - Local bands played, drinks poured and revellers partied into the morning on Sunday, for the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck five weeks ago, restoring life to New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street and other sections of the sewage-soaked city.

Mayor Ray Nagin lifted roadblocks on Friday, clearing the way for residents and revellers to return to the French Quarter and other neighbourhoods.

One night later, more than a dozen bars were back in action on Bourbon Street.

Strip clubs such as "Big Daddy's Bottomless Nudes" and "Temptations Gentlemen's Lounge" dropped cover charges - along with the dancers' clothing - to lure customers inside.

A woman outside a crowded bar called "Utopia" held a sign promising two drinks for the price of one.

A wooden sign dangling on chains from an overhang at an entrance to "The Famous Door" bar read "Hurricane City."

At one establishment, buxom waitresses coaxed customers to buy "body shots", test tube-sized vials of neon green or red booze.

They sat on patrons' laps and held the vials in their cleavage, while customers downed the drinks.

With tap water in the city still undrinkable and unsuitable even for hand washing, bottles of sanitising hand gel were made available, displayed near stacks of napkins and trays of cherries and lime slices used to garnish drinks.

Some bars and at least one street stand also offered drinks-to-go, with beverage selections including "Hurricane" rum concoctions and "Huge Ass Beers".

Revellers, some wearing Mardi Gras beads, strode around mounds of debris and past boarded up windows carrying long-necked, green plastic glasses of "Hand Grenades", touted as the most powerful drink in Louisiana.

A small, lone shop was open on the strip to sell bead necklaces and feather masks and boas, while one late-night lingerie shop offered sexy boudoir wear, as police, some wearing body armour and toting assault rifles, clustered on corners and patrolled desolate side streets.

A band blared Zydeco tunes from the half-filled Old Opera House bar into the streets.

The music struck a passer-by man who turned to his two friends, said "Now, that's the real stuff" and ushered them inside.

"It's a little awkward for us," the band's accordion player confided to listeners.

"This is our first Saturday night on Bourbon street in more than a month."

"Usually, we have a bunch of college kids in here," he continued, scanning the gathering of construction workers, rescue and bureaucrats assembled at the bar.

"This is a more mature crowd," the organ player piped in.

By sunrise, empty beer bottles abounded on the sidewalk and steps of buildings on Bourbon Street.

At the Port of New Orleans, Dr Jim Akin finished his night shift aboard the navy hospital ship "Comfort."

New Orleans hospitals remained closed.

Akin had operated on a critically ill man rushed to the ship from the town of Slidell.

"This is the first person I've laid hands on in six weeks," Akin said. "It's a delight to get back to that role."

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, a Catholic church on Sunday prepared for the city's first downtown mass since the devastating storms.

- AFP