Richard Adkins
Chief Photographer

So the Mardi Gras celebration is underway in New Orleans… It seems you can’t keep a good party down. If you’ve ever been to New Orleans (regardless of whether it’s Mardi Gras or not) you know they know how to party.
(Editing if front of St. Louis Cathedral)
The last time I was in New Orleans it was a different story... not a whole lot of celebrating going on. Hurricane Katrina had just hit the city and I came in behind it embedded with the 82nd Airborne who was helping the recovery effort.

(Catching a ride in the back of a Humvee)

I write over and over in these blogs that News Photographers get to go places many others don’t… this experience was no different. Except this was an experience I wouldn’t recommend to others. The conditions were tough, we slept the first night on a concrete loading dock at the airport… the second night on a concrete floor. We were dependent on the Army for our meals and a place to stay; they invited us on this trip to document their aid work... but then didn’t seem to want us there when we hit the ground.
(After a couple of days, we found a home in this tent)

(Inside the tent, I used my coat for a mattress and slept with the camera gear)
New Orleans was a very different place then from other times I had been there. The normally alive city was barely comatose. The streets were often deserted, or filled with people you wouldn’t want to make eye contact with. At times, the police presence was more scary than comforting.

(I'm sure Burbon Street doesn't look like this during Mardi Gras)
While we had it tough, nothing can compare to what the people of the city were going through… and still are going through.

I stayed primarily in the Downtown and French Quarter areas… Photographer Keith Baker with Reporter Cullen Browder went into the flooding, you can read their story here. And Photographer Ed Wilson traveled with Reporter Amanda Lamb, Brad Grantham and Sat Tech Brian Pittman to the areas outside of New Orleans… you can read about their travels here.