An American city fights for survival

摘要

Under a daffodil-yellow tent on the east bank of the Mississippi river in Algiers, New Orleans, artists are spray-painting giant alligators, voodoo spirits and a 3-metre-tall, pink-fringed foaming bathtub. As preparations for the Mardi Gras parades intensify, it is hard to believe that just six months ago one of the worst natural disasters in US history tore through these streets. "I feel good," says Clayton Jones, shrugging his shoulders and grinning. A New Orleans native who has worked for years in the "dens" where the floats are stored, he is living in a trailer provided by the US government's Federal Emergency Management Agency in the yard of his house. "If we don't celebrate Mardi Gras, it will feel like we are not coming back," explains stained-glass artist Elsa Jones, as she mixes a pot of glue. Others are less happy.