Gulf oil spill: Big Easy worried but busy

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In New Orleans, there is a sort of surreal atmosphere about the gulf oil spill disaster: Locals are aware of how grave the situation is, but many of them – particularly in the retail, tourism and restaurant industries – are swamped serving happy out-of-town revelers in town for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

At the Louisiana Music Factory, a specialty record store in the French Quarter, clerk Mike Robeson said that none of the tourists visiting the shop really mention the spill – and during the day he’s too busy to really ruminate on it.

“There’s so much going on there’s almost no time to talk about it,� he said.

But on his way home Thursday night, Robeson stopped by the Nelly Deli grocery store, at Bourbon and Ursulines streets, to buy a half-pint of Jim Beam. The news was on television, and it suddenly it hit hard.

“The clerk was almost crying over the brown pelicans,� he said.

-- Richard Fausset

[Updated 5:25 p.m.: An earlier version had the headline: ‘Gulf oil spill: The Big Easy takes the news with shrug.’]

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