Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey there,
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Visiting New Orleans during Marty
Speaker 1: Gras is certainly on my list. The food is amazing,
Speaker 1: and by all accounts, the costumes are dazzling, the energy exciting,
Speaker 1: and the music phenomenal. And of course there are those colorful,
Speaker 1: exactly gaudy enough beads, tons and tons of beads. People
Speaker 1: throw them a passers by and tossed them from the
Speaker 1: elaborate parade floats to be worn and treasured as souvenirs.
Speaker 1: The beads are as much a hallmark of Marty Gras
Speaker 1: as the Kingcake, also known as throws. They've been around
Speaker 1: since the nineteen twenties. That's wheen a few of the
Speaker 1: crews the groups that planned the celebrations parades started handing
Speaker 1: glass beads out to parade goers lining the streets. But
Speaker 1: these festive beads have caused quite a severe headache for
Speaker 1: the city's public works department. Since September, workers have been
Speaker 1: painstakingly cleaning tons of discarded Marty Gras beads from the
Speaker 1: city's catch basins. In fact, they've sucked out some than
Speaker 1: pounds that's forty six tons or forty two metric tons
Speaker 1: along just a five blocks stretch of the popular downtown
Speaker 1: parade route on St. Charles Avenue. Private contractors working under
Speaker 1: a seven million dollar grant have collected nearly seven point
Speaker 1: two million pounds that's three thousand, two hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: five metric tons of debris from fifteen thousand of the
Speaker 1: city's sixty eight thousand catch basins. The money is part
Speaker 1: of a twenty two million dollar emergency project by the
Speaker 1: city's Department of Public Works designed not only to clean
Speaker 1: but also fixed the city's damaged basins. Nearly twenty four
Speaker 1: vacuum trucks started cleaning them after widespread flooding last summer.
Speaker 1: Marty Gras will be in full swing in the weeks
Speaker 1: leading up to Fat Tuesday, which falls on February eighteen,
Speaker 1: and the city is hoping residents and visitors will help
Speaker 1: prevent beads and other debris from clogging the drains. To
Speaker 1: that end, the city has been teaching people how to
Speaker 1: clean the catch basins in their own neighborhoods, and city
Speaker 1: workers are also considering covering the basins with so called
Speaker 1: gutter buddies. At least until Marty Grazo. For these are
Speaker 1: filters that look a bit like pool noodles and are
Speaker 1: made with synthetic fibers woven to allow water to flow
Speaker 1: straight through, but to catch sediment and debris. And since
Speaker 1: they're washable and reasonable, they might be a wise investment
Speaker 1: for future years. So, as they say in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: laze le bon or let the good times roll. Just
Speaker 1: don't let those Marti grab aids roll down the city's drains.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by John Partano and produced by
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: festive topics, visit our home planet, how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com