The celebratory atmosphere of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, long an American byword for indulgence and revelry, faded Wednesday as residents and visitors alike felt relieved by a deadly truck attack on New Year’s crowds. of. Several square blocks of the main entertainment district were blocked off after the attack, after authorities said a U.S. military veteran drove a pickup truck into pedestrians, killing at least 15 people in what became known as the Big Easy. A tear broke out in the center of the known city. ,
“We’re all stunned,” Ken Williams, a Creole chef who grew up in New Orleans and worked as a candy seller in the city’s usually bustling French Quarter, told AFP.
“Everyone is shocked by what happened,” the 65-year-old man said. “Some people are just going to try to drink it – drive the fear away, you know?”
Williams said he was lucky to return home around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, about 90 minutes before the massacre began.
Dwayne Perkins, 22, decided to stay out late and said he saw the truck speeding down Bourbon Street, leaving a trail of destruction.
“If the police had been doing their job last night, this never would have happened,” said Perkins, who lives in New Orleans.
He slammed the police force for allowing a private vehicle to enter a road which is meant only for pedestrians during festive times.
His coping mechanism after that? The tragedy he witnessed included “getting drunk and drowning in pain”.
The French Quarter is usually packed with revelers looking for live music and art galleries. It is also an ideal location for the city’s debauched nightlife and has become a world-renowned hub for wild parties.
New Year’s Eve was especially busy, as sports fans turned out to be a celebratory crowd ahead of the Sugar Bowl college football game, which was scheduled to begin Wednesday night at the stadium known as the Superdome.
Read this also “Horrified”: World leaders react to New Orleans attack that killed 15
Lives ‘at stake’
Thousands of fans of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Georgia gathered downtown to pack the streets and bars of the French Quarter ahead of the playoff — which has now been postponed until Thursday night.
Sugar Bowl ticketholder Jill Davenport of Richmond, Virginia, told AFP that she and her family, after watching New Year’s fireworks, were thinking of strolling through the French Quarter to see live music.
“To be honest, things got better at 1:00 in the morning” and they went back to the hotel. “We are very fortunate that we made this decision,” he said.
“It feels like we’re having these tragedies over and over again and it’s scary,” he said.
Davenport, 55, expressed grief for relatives of those killed, but he also expressed concern for bars and other businesses that rely heavily on tourism.
“This has a huge economic impact on this city…the sudden closure of these restaurants and bars could be ‘make or break’ for them.”
Still, bars outside the closed blocks where the FBI was conducting their investigation were attracting customers. Football fans were roaming the streets. Zydeco music from an accordion player enlivened the nearby street.
A street musician, speaking on condition of anonymity, said business has fallen.
“We should be making money this time of year,” he said. Instead, the crowd has thinned out.
Now he worries about his city, where he could never have imagined such a deadly attack occurring “not even in a million years.”
Williams, the chef, said New Orleans “must transform” by dramatically increasing its security operations to accommodate hosting major events including Mardi Gras celebrations, Jazz Fest and the American football Super Bowl championship on Feb. 9.
“Many people’s lives are at stake,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)