Diehards carry on drinking as Ivan closes on New Orleans [View All]

[DS1]

As Hurricane Ivan tore across the Gulf of Mexico towards them, the inhabitants of America's most notoriously hedonistic town did one of two things. The majority obeyed a mandatory evacuation order, leaving behind them a ghost city of boarded-up windows and sandbagged shopfronts. The rest got drunk.
Bourbon Street, the fabled main drag of the New Orleans' French Quarter, remained a tiny oasis of intoxication as the first gusts of wind began to disturb the languid heat. Stubborn residents and stranded tourists strolled the cobble-stones - drinks in hand, thanks to an unusual bylaw - and tried not to think about the storm that has already devastated Grenada and parts of Jamaica, and prompted states of emergency in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

"We don't run from hurricanes - we drink them," read one sign daubed on plywood, referring to the rum-and-lime cocktail that most bars were dispensing at a dollar a glass.

At the Razzoo Club, on Bourbon, the festivities were in full swing by Tuesday night, the partygoers placing their faith in a combination of God and alcohol.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,1305368,00.html

These stupid bastards are putting rescue services at risk, I say let them rot -except the homeless and stranded monks :7