Daily Times

Some 36 hours after New Orleans was rocked by a terror attack, bar worker Samantha Petry wiped her tears and placed flowers Thursday on Bourbon Street, which reopened with few hints of the trauma inflicted on the iconic nightlife hub.

Cleaning crews had washed down streets of the famed French Quarter after authorities largely concluded their on-site investigation of a grisly New Year’s truck-ramming attack that left at least 14 people dead and 30 others injured.

At the entrance to Bourbon Street, 14 yellow roses were placed along a wall where an elderly man dropped to his knees and prayed, his head nearly touching the sidewalk. Crosses were erected nearby as a makeshift memorial. Business owners and co-workers hugged. A jazz band performed a traditional New Orleans “second line” that featured people marching and dancing down Bourbon Street in mourning and celebration.

Petry walked over and added her bouquet to the flowers, as curious tourists walked onto the normally packed promenade full of drinking establishments, jazz and blues clubs, restaurants and strip joints.

She works at the Cat’s Meow karaoke bar, but she bristled at how quickly Bourbon Street was reverting to party central after tragedy. “No, I’m not happy” about the area’s rapid reopening, she told AFP, adding she would have preferred time to mourn those who died and seek to confirm all her friends were OK.

“It’s all for money,” added Petry, who moved to Louisiana from California. “But at the same time, I do have a livelihood and I have to work.”

She and her co-workers endure the slow season in order to work New Year’s Eve, and major events like Mardi Gras and the NFL’s upcoming Super Bowl championship, Petry said. “But how am I going to feel safe to work here?”