Terminal violators of the Natural Law defiantly hold a parade in New Orleans.

It was a scene like something from a Fellini movie. Amid the death, the destruction, and suffering in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina a small parade behind a tattered rainbow flag made its way up Bourbon Street on Sunday.

More like Kafka. Or H.P. Freakin' Lovecraft.

The marchers said they were celebrating Southern Decadence. The group - about two dozen people - all said they lived in the largely gay French Quarter. Defiant, they said they were not about to flee the community despite orders from the city to do so.

The French Quarter, the oldest neighborhood in New Orleans, sits on higher ground than most of the city and escaped the worst of the flooding. Still water permeated the first floors of most buildings. The winds that accompanied Katrina ripped signs from buildings. Windows are shattered and broken, and many buildings had their roofs blown off.

Most of the marchers were among the poorest citizens of the neighborhood - the barbacks, clerks, part-time waiters and the unemployed who lived above the shops and clubs in the Quarter.

The rainbow flag was taken from the front of one bar. It was ragged and worn but it had survived the hurricane, just as the plucky marchers had.

Matt Menold, 23, a street musician wearing a sombrero and a guitar slung over his back, summed up the sentiments of the other marchers.

``It's New Orleans, man. We're going to celebrate,'' he told the AP.

Another marcher carried a sign reading "Life Goes On?"

Southern Decadence would normally have filled the streets of the French Quarter this Labor Day weekend. The biggest LGBT event in the South it normally attracts thousands of people from across the country and pumps millions of dollars into the local economy. Last year more than 110, 000 attended the event.

This would have been the festival's 33rd year.
(Thanks to Laura Ingraham for the heads up on this one.)