WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW ORLEANS - The crowds and music of Mardi Gras gave way to street sweepers and push brooms in New Orleans' French Quarter this morning.

Business owners hosed off sidewalks outside bars, restaurants, strip joins and souvenir shops. A few tourists dodged the Ash Wednesday cleanup, many with smudged foreheads after the early morning Mass at St. Louis Cathedral in the Quarter's Jackson Square.

Despite the past few days' gloomy weather keeping many people away, crowds in the Quarter were still quite large for the pre-Lent parades and festivities.

Visitors said they enjoyed the celebration and weren't deterred by a shooting that happened on Bourbon Street on Saturday night. Four people were wounded and two others have been arrested.