Three times since the Federal Flood in the wake of Hurricane Katrina devastated the greater New Orleans metropolitan area, Fat Tuesday has come and gone. Every year, the powers that be claim the parades and celebrations are a step nearer restoration, another milestone along the way to bringing New Orleans (and, by extension, the Gulf Coast devastated by the hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, that swept out of the Caribbean in August and September 2005) back.

As Reuters reported:
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Colorful parades rolled through New Orleans on Tuesday as thousands of revelers turned out to celebrate Mardi Gras in the city still scarred by Hurricane Katrina. Drinking and dancing partiers jostled for sidewalk space to watch elaborately decorated floats as they passed near neighborhoods not fully recovered from the August 29, 2005, storm that flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,300 people.

“It’s really beautiful. I feel like New Orleans is the last bohemia in America,” said Carole Frances Lung, an artist from Los Angeles who was dressed up in a deer costume. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, marks the end of the 12-day Carnival season that precedes Lent. This was the third Mardi Gras since Katrina and each year city officials have touted the celebration as another step toward full recovery from the storm.

Many flooded-out homes and businesses are still abandoned, but experts say New Orleans now has about 70 percent of its pre-Katrina population of nearly half a million. About 800,000 people were expected to swarm into the city and fill up 90 percent of the hotel rooms for the final days of Mardi Gras, tourism officials said.

The Associated Press put out a story noting that Fat Tuesday coincided with Super Tuesday this year (Mardi Gras is early, because Easter is early). But nowhere in any of the frenzy over Super Tuesday did I see any depth or breadth of reporting — indeed, it’s as though the whole Gulf Coast doesn’t count anymore — about the primary in Louisiana.

And I wonder if the national amnesia about New Orleans contributed in some way to the blackout on John Edwards.