Tales from NOLA: The night of sparkling teeth

People who stayed in New Orleans through the storm have varied experiences, but everyone talks about how dark the city was. With power out all over the region, the night sky was vivid and bright.

Those first few nights, we'd sit outside, and it'd be pitch dark out. I've never seen stars that bright in my life. Stars, galaxies, constellations, everything.

There were stars and there were helicopters. Flying back and forth, rescuing people and dropping them at the Superdome, and then flying back to rescue someone else. The first couple nights were long nights.

Sitting outside, you couldn't see across the street it was so dark. This old man who lives in our neighborhood has two gold front teeth. One night, he came walking down the street, and flashed a smile. The stars reflecting off his teeth sparkled, so we saw these two gold teeth, floating in the middle of the street. We waved to him, and as a chopper flew by he waved and walked away