BATON ROUGE - Heavy rain right before the Kenilworth Parade raised a lot of concerns, but it could not keep this year's event from rolling on as scheduled.

"Just like America is forever resilient, we are resilient, pulling through the rain for the parade today," said Parade Chairman Paul Sicard.

Reciting this year's parade theme of resiliency Sicard says the rain
was so heavy that it was touch and go up until the last minute.

"We were sitting here while we were getting dumped on at five o'clock
and we had faith we would be able to roll at 6:30 and we did," Sicard said.

Despite downpours right up until the start, people still lined the streets for the 49th neighborhood parade after the event was drastically scaled back last year because of the pandemic.

"I feel like the floats are better, there are throws coming out to them. I think people have been waiting for this and just having a good time," Resident Owen Carmichael said.

Thirty-eight entries took part in the parade, and the crowd was not as large as before the pandemic. Organizers still considered the event a success, especially with all the rainfall right before the parade
was scheduled to take off.