"Today is a good day in the city of New Orleans - we have made it," Ray Nagin told reporters in a pink ballroom also decorated with the traditional Mardi Gras colors.

A rolling party of costumed revelers will board the city's street cars this evening to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany which marks the opening of the Carnival season here.

However, New Orleans will be celebrating its 150th Carnival season in a weakened state.

While the historic French Quarter escaped serious damage from Hurricane Katrina, much of the fabled city still looks like a war zone.

Only about a third of the city's residents have returned and it will be months before clean-up crews are able to clear away the rubble of thousands of destroyed houses.

Bodies are still being discovered in the wreckage more than four months after the vast storm flooded much of the city, which lies below sea level.

While many have complained that throwing a two-week long party in the midst of such destruction and despair is in bad taste, Nagin said Carnival -- the city's biggest tourist attraction -- was critical to the rebirth of the city.

New Orleans has cancelled Mardi Gras just 13 times in its history: For the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and a police strike in 1979.

The fact that Carnival is happening so soon after the hurricane flooded New Orleans "speaks to this city's fortitude, its dedication (and) its wildness," Nagin said.

"We are prepared as a city to put on the best Mardi Gras that we have ever seen."

The Gulf Coast city is still seeking a commercial sponsor of Mardi Gras to raise 1.5 million dollars to pay for police overtime and the extra cleaning up required by Carnival.

The hospitality industry, which lost many of its hotels and restaurants to the storm and many of its staff members in the subsequent evacuation, is scurrying to prepare for the festivities.

There are currently 21,000 hotel rooms available in the city and 4,000 more should be ready in time for Mardi Gras on February 28, said Darrius Gray, president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association.

The parades begin in earnest on February 16 and will increase in intensity as Mardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday", approaches.

Carnival was instituted by the Catholic Church as a period of feasting before the fasting of Lent.

The Church set January 6 - the Feast of the Epiphany - as the start of the Carnival season and established Mardi Gras as the day before Ash Wednesday.

While Carnival is celebrated in most countries with a large Catholic population, the so-called King Cake is a New Orleans tradition.

The King Cake is an oval shaped pastry, presented in the sugary colors of Carnival: purple, green and gold. Tradition dictates that whoever finds the doll is crowned "King" and buys the next King Cake or throws the next party.

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