As Mardi Gras nears, a beefed-up police presence and a rain-scrambled parade schedule in New Orleans
ABC News
New Orleans’ annual Carnival celebration has entered its high-intensity home stretch with a beefed-up police presence and a weather-scrambled parade schedule
NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans' annual Carnival celebration entered its high-intensity home stretch Friday with a beefed-up police presence and a weather forecast that threatened to disrupt the first of two weekends of elaborate parades.
Three parades were scheduled to roll Friday night with no weather complications expected. But flood-threatening rains were in the forecast for Saturday. City officials and organizers of six parades scheduled to roll Saturday were moving up start times in hopes of avoiding the deluges.
“We can move some times back and forth. We will thread the needle with these parades,” Collin Arnold, the city's homeland security director, said during a news conference earlier in the week.
In neighboring Jefferson Parish, the Mad Hatters parade was moved from Saturday to Sunday.
Carnival season started Jan. 6 and ends on Mardi Gras — Fat Tuesday — which falls this year on Feb. 13. The final two weekends are marked by elaborate processions on St. Charles Avenue.