15 people confirmed dead, dozens injured in New Orleans on New Years Day

NEW ORLEANS La. (KBSI) -There are 15 people confirmed dead and more than 30 people injured after what police call a terrorist attack. Emotions are running high in Louisiana. 

The people of New Orleans with connections here at home saying they still can’t believe what they saw. 

A shocking scene that some say is all too familiar. 

A ball dropping and corks popping on Bourbon Street. The center of celebration turned to terror, a Louisiana resident who did not want to be identified opening up about her fears. 

“Every single place that you live in has its ups and downs. I mean, there’s pockets of crime. There’s always the natural disasters that you worry about. I’ve never actually felt the need to flee,” she said. 

She told us she left her home in Texas to go to college in Louisiana and ended up staying there but now she is worried about the area her kids will grow up in. 

“Once I had kids, I took that into consideration. I knew which schools they were not going to attend. I never actually mean, just until recently, man. I mean, the carjackings. within the past couple of years, I’ve been very thankful not to be directly, in, New Orleans proper,” she said. 

The scene sent shock waves across Louisiana and the country she told us sadly she witnessed scenes like what’s not being called a terror attack before. 

“Shootings happen all the time. But for something to happen just without motivation. I’ll tell you the first time that I ever experienced it, it was the Endymion parade a few years ago. There was a driver that purposefully drove through an Endymion parade purposefully,” she said. 

Now first responders put part of their focus on healing.

A former EMS worker in Louisiana Gavin Istre says it’s hard to even be able to talk about situations like these because you don’t have time to focus on the toll that it brings to you on the job. You focus on how you can help. 

“Focus on the patient, you focus on the victims, the assailants, even the bystanders who want to help and or getting in the way. you’re focused on that. You focus on the job. You have nothing else to focus on. Otherwise, you just kind of lose it,” said Istre. 

Istre says unfortunately police train for dealing with celebrations that turn tragic. 

“Especially on something we have, the police have done with extra security, put up bollards. They put up barricades if they’ve done what they can to limit traffic, it’s just foot traffic for someone that just runs through it, not care. I’m honestly shocked there weren’t more people injured at the barricades. We usually have four police horses as everything’s set up at those perimeters.”

As for people in Louisiana they say healing will take time. 

“Someone to take a vehicle and drive through a parade crowd like Endymion, I think it was like five years ago that opened up a lot of people’s eyes.”

Now the city is still regrouping as more big events like the Superbowl only weeks away.