Terrorist threats and weather warnings, welcome to New Orleans!

My daughter has just returned from America where she spent four days in New York followed by eight days in New Orleans.

As part of her American Studies course at Birmingham University she spent a year at Loyola University in New Orleans and still has friends in the city.

Most years she returns to NOLA for Mardi Gras, the famous carnival season that stretches from twelfth night (January 6) to the day before ASH Wednesday.

Culminating on Mardi Gras Day (or Fat Tuesday), the celebrations include a week of processions and parades.

Compared to previous years, my daughter reports that things were a bit muted this time, a result perhaps of the terrorist attack on January 1 when 14 people were killed after a pick up truck was intentionally driven into a crowd of people in Bourbon Street.

Thankfully the biggest threat to the conclusion of carnival season 2025 was merely the weather, with some parades moved forward ‘ahead of expected severe winds, thunderstorms and tornado warnings’.

Welcome to New Orleans!

PS. To be clear, I would love to visit NOLA and the state of Louisiana. But not, perhaps, during the rainy season.

Below: Daughter (left) in New Orleans, March 4, 2025