Belfast man living in New Orleans speaks of 'sombre' city since attack
Stephen Rea is a writer and ex journalist who is living in New Orleans.
Last updated 5th Jan 2025
A Belfast man living in New Orleans says he has never felt such panic as when he woke up on New Year's Day without his wife beside him.
It's emerged a British man was among 14 people killed in an attack in New Orleans.
The Prince of Wales says he and Kate are "shocked and saddened" by the death Edward Pettifer from west London.
He is understood to be the stepson of William and Harry's former nanny.
Dozens were injured when an alleged Islamic State supporter drove a truck into crowds.
Stephen Rea, who grew up in North Down, went to bed early and woke up with no idea what had happened.
He spoke to Cool FM/Downtown news exclusively: “I woke up to a bombardment of texts saying, ‘It was so terrible, is everyone okay?’ I turn to my wife, and she wasn’t in bed beside me, and I could tell her side hadn’t been slept in. So, I had a few minutes of panic.”
“What had happened is she had come in late. She left Canal Street maybe half an hour before the attack happened. Because it was so late, she had gone and slept in the spare room because she didn’t want to wake me up.”
Mr Rea, who grew up in Dundonald, Co Down, said the fact his daughter was visiting him was like a saving grace. He was out earlier in the day at an Irish Pub with her welcoming in the New Year and went home earlier to watch movies as she is only 17 years old. If she was not in town, he said he could have may well been in the vicinity of the attack, as it is so popular, it’s like the ‘Disneyland for adults.”
Stephen told us of the shock in the local community, saying there is a ‘veil over the city’ since it happened: “New Orleans has been through a lot, the one thing about this city is it’s resilient.”
With natural disasters including Hurricane Katrina – he say’s the city has experienced devastation – but not like this. Mr Rea says the sheer shock factor of this attack makes it stand out: “It was just so unexpected, and it came out of nowhere. So, I think it has had a different effect on the psyche of the city. There is a lot more shock and sombreness here.”
“It’s a small city. Everybody knows everybody… it’s smaller than Belfast. I will be amazed if this doesn’t touch everybody in some way.”
You can hear more about this story at the top on the hour in our bulletins: https://hellorayo.co.uk/cool-fm/