Residents and visitors of New Orleans expressed their fear Wednesday after a deadly car-ramming attack which devastated New Year’s festivities on Bourbon Street, a street hitherto famous for its festive spirit.
Several blocks of the “Vieux Carré”, the city’s historic French quarter, were cordoned off after the attack in which, according to authorities, a former American soldier rushed his vehicle into pedestrians, killing at least 15 people. before being killed by the police.
“We’re all numb,” Ken Williams, a Creole chef who grew up in New Orleans and also works as a candy seller in the usually bustling neighborhood, told AFP.
“Everyone is shocked by what happened,” adds the 65-year-old. “Some people will try to get rid of the fear by drinking, you know?”
Mr. Williams counts himself lucky to have returned home around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, 90 minutes before the carnage began.
Dwayne Perkins, 22, had decided to stay out late and said he saw the pickup traveling down Bourbon Street at high speed, leaving destruction in its wake.
“If the police had done their job last night, this would never have happened,” criticizes Mr. Perkins, who lives in New Orleans. He accuses the police of having authorized a private vehicle to enter a street reserved for pedestrians during the holiday period.
His way of overcoming the trauma? “Getting drunk and drowning the pain” of the tragedy he witnessed.
The “Vieux Carré” is traditionally full of fans of live music and art galleries. It is also the temple of partying in New Orleans, renowned worldwide for its wild parties.
New Year’s Eve was particularly lively, with sports fans joining the party crowd ahead of a big college Football game, the Sugar Bowl, which was scheduled to kick off that evening. even.
Tens of thousands of fans from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Georgia had converged on the city, filling the streets and bars of the French Quarter before the start of the game, which was delayed by 24 hours.
– “Economic impact” –
Jill Davenport, a resident of Richmond, Virginia, told AFP that she and her family, after watching the New Year’s fireworks, planned to go to the “Vieux Carré” to listen live music.
-Finally, “common sense prevailed at one in the morning” and they returned to the hotel. “We are very fortunate to have made this decision.”
“We have the impression that these tragedies are becoming more and more frequent, and it’s frightening,” she breathes.
Ms. Davenport, 55, expresses her sadness for the families of the victims, but also her concern for the bars and other businesses that rely heavily on tourism.
“This has a considerable economic impact on this city… The sudden closure of these restaurants and bars could be fatal to them,” she said.
Yet bars located outside the blocks where the FBI was conducting its investigation still attracted customers. Football fans still walk the streets. In a nearby alley, an accordionist plays a few notes of zarico, a musical genre that appeared in Louisiana in the 1930s.
A street musician, who asked not to be named, testifies to a blow to business.
“We should be making money” at this time of year, he laments. Instead, the crowds dwindled.
Today, he worries about his city, where he could never have imagined such a deadly attack, “not even in a million years.”
Mr. Williams, the chef, believes that New Orleans “is going to have to change” by significantly strengthening its security measures to be able to host major events such as Mardi Gras, the Jazz Fest and, on February 9, the football championship American Super Bowl.
“The lives of too many people are at stake,” he confides.
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