How New Orleans is preparing for Mardi Gras after Bourbon Street attack

Mardi Gras is almost here. And security surrounding this year’s Fat Tuesday celebrations, marking the end of Carnival season in New Orleans, will be heightened following the deadly New Year’s Day terror attack on Bourbon Street.

As was the case during last month’s Super Bowl, there will be a visible security presence in the Big Easy on March 2, including rooftop snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs and armored vehicles deployed throughout the city.

“We started this with Super Gras, focusing on the Super Bowl and transitioning into Mardi Gras,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference about security preparations. “I think it was absolutely a test run for us.

“We know that we're battle-tested,” Cantrell added. “We're just looking for a safe and fun Mardi Gras.”

Heightened security in the French Quarter

According to the mayor’s office, there will be nearly 1,000 federal, state and local law enforcement personnel deployed during Mardi Gras, including more than 600 police officers and 100 plainclothes officers stationed in the French Quarter. A total of 11 federal agencies will provide tactical, air, maritime and canine support, along with specialized teams for explosives, intelligence and field operations.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has designated Mardi Gras a "Special Event Assessment Rating" (SEAR) Level 1 event, which it defines as one that requires "extensive federal interagency support."

"This is one of the first moments in our history where Mardi Gras is a SEAR 1-rated event," Cantrell said.

“All of the same resources that were brought out for [the] Super Bowl, they’ll see in an elongated fashion along Mardi Gras parade routes,” Eric DeLaune, special agent in charge of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, told the Times-Picayune this week.

The Super Bowl, DeLaune said, served as a “pressure test” for Mardi Gras. President Trump became the first sitting president to attend the game, which required additional layers of security.

The game was played a little more than a month after the Jan. 1 attack, which left 14 people dead and dozens of others injured. Officials say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Houston who had proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group, rammed a truck into a crowd of people in the French Quarter. He was shot and killed by police at the scene.

'Serpentine' route for vehicles

The security zone in place during the Super Bowl will be enforced again during Mardi Gras, with National Guard troops stationed in the French Quarter, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at the mayor’s press conference.

Police will also implement a “vehicle mitigation system” that includes what Kirkpatrick called a “serpentine course” for vehicles, with strategically placed barricades to slow traffic.

“We’re going to weave it like a snake,” Kirkpatrick said. “That will slow anybody down who thinks they’re going to use a vehicle as a weapon.”

No confetti, no drones

The French Quarter will again be designated a “no drone zone” during Mardi Gras like it was during the Super Bowl, when law enforcement personnel seized 33 such unmanned aerial vehicles.

“If you put your drones up, we’re going to come get them,” Kirkpatrick said.

The city council released a list of other banned items, including confetti and confetti launchers, charcoal and gas barbecue grills, mylar balloons, portable generators, upholstered furniture, scaffolding and ladders over six feet high.

The traditional throwing of beads, however, will not be affected by the enhanced security measures, officials said.