ST. LOUIS — The city with the highest growth rate of COVID-19 cases in the world is also a town that a lot of St. Louisans have a lot of love for and even some strong connections to.
We're talking about New Orleans.
Recently, 5 On Your Side's Casey Nolen got to speak with his counterpart
at our sister station, WWL-TV, about what it is like on the ground right now in the Big Easy.
Devin Bartolotta, WWL-TV
I think you're totally right when you say a lot of people have ties to this place and a lot everyone says it's either on your bucket list or it's your favorite place to go
So, yeah, I've been getting a lot of messages from family and friends that are worried because they see New Orleans making national headlines. And it's a little scary what you see.
I spoke with a senator earlier this week who is absolutely demanding that they send a Navy hospital ship to New Orleans. The governor has already turned our convention center into a makeshift hospital. Our superintendent, the NOPD superintendent, John Ferguson, said something this week that really kind of struck me.
He said the New Orleans culture is working against itself. And this is such a community that is based on, you know, crawfish boils and togetherness and family and cookouts.
And, you know, you take one look down Bourbon Street on a regular Saturday night, and it is people everywhere. This is such a communal city that to separate it is really difficult. It's heartbreaking for a lot of people.
Casey Nolen, KSDK-TV
If it doesn't look different on Bourbon Street. Are people taking at least some of the advice?
Devin Bartolotta, WWL-TV
I mean, every restaurant, every bar in the city is closed. So you walk down. There is not a soul on Bourbon Street.
Casey Nolen, KSDK-TV
This is a town that's been through stuff before. Katrina. What are people saying when they talk about getting through this?
Devin Bartolotta, WWL-TV
I've talked to a lot of people in the service industry and that it's a tough number to pin down. But there's estimates that it's about 25 percent of the New Orleans population works somehow in the tourism industry or the restaurant industry or the bar industry or the hotel industry.
It's gonna be tough. They know that it's tough.
Bar owners who survived through Hurricane Katrina and through oil spills and other horrible disasters that have happened right around this area. They know that they're resilient. They know that they've done it before.
And I talked to a hotel owner that says, you know what, this is. This is just another thing. Just another thing. We'll get through it. This city always pulls through it. And that's the expectation around here. Yes, it's stressful. Yes, it's horrible. And a lot of people have lost their jobs. But I think the overall feeling here is this isn't the worst we've been through.
Casey Nolen, KSDK-TV
Our thanks to Devin Bartolotta of WWL. We also talked about Mardi Gras and the idea that perhaps the situation there is even worse because they went ahead with that celebration. And Morgan, she says back at the end of February when they were celebrating Mardi Gras, it just was not on the minds of local people there. They were just the concerns of the Coronavirus just didn't exist in New Orleans at that time.