New Orleans Celebrates Fat Tuesday

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and actress Patricia Clarkson enjoy a moment before the start of the Orpheus parade in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 19, 2007. The Carnival season culminates Tuesday with the all day street party know as Mardi Gras. (AP Photo/Bill Haber) (Bill Haber - AP)

NEW ORLEANS -- Thousands of hurricane-weary residents joined with rowdy visitors for Fat Tuesday, taking a break from rebuilding New Orleans to put on wild costumes and celebrate the second Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina.

John Ferguson, who is still rebuilding his house almost 18 months after the storm, said of the celebration: "We never needed it more."

"I work all day at my job; then I work all night and all weekend on my house," Ferguson said. "I just want to eat, drink and have fun today."

Many spectators spent the day along the parade routes or in the French Quarter, where the first Mardi Gras parade of the day was staged by the 1,250-member Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, a predominantly black group that wears grass skirts and black face makeup in parody of stereotypes from the early 1900s, when it was founded.

"I'm hyped up," said Ike Williams, a 42-year-old Atlanta contractor who is black, marching in his first parade as a member of Zulu's Walking Warriors. "I couldn't sleep last night. This is the center of the universe right now."

The annual free-for-all party ended at midnight when police _ some walking, some on horseback _ followed by street sweepers marched down Bourbon Street declaring Carnival is over.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Ray Nagin rode a horse down St. Charles Avenue.

"We're going to make it happen," Nagin told the crowd at Gallier Hall, which served as city hall for more than a century. "We're going to rebuild this city regardless."

Nagin urged tourists to spend money. "We need the tax revenue bad," he said.

Thousands packed the 12 blocks of Bourbon Street, and more flowed into the French Quarter as the parades wound down with the setting sun. Police said there were three shootings and one fatal stabbing, but they occurred far from the parade route and were considered unrelated to Mardi Gras.

The crowds appeared larger than last year, when an estimated 700,000 people were in the city for the final weekend and Mardi Gras. The city's 30,000 hotel rooms were 95 percent occupied, according to Fred Sawyers, president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association.

Along some parade routes, crowds listened to Pete Fountain's Dixieland jazz as his Half Fast Marching Club kicked off the day. It was the 46th time the Grammy-winning clarinetist had made the march from Commander's Palace restaurant in the uptown section to the Mississippi River.