NEW ORLEANS--New Orleans residents took to the streets on Sunday night and partied until the wee hours of the morning to celebrate the Saints victory over the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. Fans drank, danced, hired prostitutes and stuffed their faces, pretty much like they would have done had the Saints had lost.

“Yeaaaaaa! Wooooohoooo! Who dat! Who dat!” shouted one man, clad head to toe in Saints gear. “It’s so great to be out here celebrating with the rest of the fans. I’ve been here since eight o’clock. I’ve been drinking for nine hours, baby! Yea! I'm just so glad they won. Can you imagine if they lost? We would have taken to the streets and partied all night, but it would have been slightly more subdued.”

One club owner said he hadn’t seen a party like this since one month ago.

“What a party!” said Wayne Hall, 52. “Everybody’s out, they got their beads, they got their Saints gear, their tying one on – it’s a blast. I haven’t seen anything like this since about a month ago on New Year’s Eve. And before that it was the NFC Conference Championship, then it was that big game that the Saints won against New England. Then it was…well, it happens all the time, actually. But this weekend is special because the people getting their stomachs pumped have Drew Brees shirts on.”

At 4 am, the French Quarter was still swarming with people celebrating the big win. For many, it was the surest sign yet that the beleaguered city’s fortunes had taken a turn for the better.

“I’ve been a Saints fan for two weeks and it’s so great to see them finally win something,” said 28 year-old Kari Stewart, a student at Tulane University. “And the city has been through so much. This victory is really going to turn things around for us. This is a cause to celebrate! Wooooooo! Tonight I’m going to party like it’s…Thursday, because that’s usually the night me and my friends get shitfaced on Bourbon Street.”

On the balconies of the bars and restaurants lining Bourbon Street, delirious fans threw beads, guzzled champagne and poured beer over one another in an orgy of indulgence the likes of which is seen all the time in the French Quarter.

“This reminds me of the last time we had a Super Bowl here,” said yelled one intoxicated patron. “Everybody was partying then, too. We kind of just like to party here. It’s good that this is a victory party, though. When they lost the NFC Championship game to the Chicago Bears in 2006, the bars closed at 4 a.m. and there was only, like, 98 percent of the crowd there is now.”

With the Saints due back in town tonight and a victory parade scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, this party is showing no signs of letting up. In the words of one drunken reveler emerging from a strip club on Bourbon Street, “Yeaa! Wooooooooo! This is the greatest freaking night of my freaking life, man! What’s that? Holy shit and the Saints won the Super Bowl, too! Even better!”