WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For today's other top story, we turn to New Orleans, that this is the first weekend since an ISIS inspired Texas man killed more than a dozen people and silenced the city known for its joyous atmosphere.

As New Orleans recovers, officials and residents are asking what can be done to better protect their city against brutal acts of terror.

Laura Barron-Lopez has the latest from Louisiana.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ (voice-over): Strains of music once again drifted through New Orleans French Quarter while bouncers checked IDs and patted people down.

But even as people returned to bustling Bourbon Street for its nightlife, bars and live music, there were reminders of Wednesday's terrorist attack that killed 14 people.

Since then, makeshift memorials have sprung up near the site.

Flowers, candles, crosses, and notes left for those who died.

Earlier, Sarah Colbert, who lives in New Orleans, and her mother, Janeal Colbert, who was visiting from Los Angeles, stopped to pay their respects.

They were among the throngs of partygoers who packed Bourbon Street on New Year's Eve and said they missed the attack by an hour.

SARAH COLBERT, New Orleans resident: The people here, the victims, were people that we walked amongst, people that we saw could have been someone that we saw dancing and admired as we people watched down the street.

It's real close to home.

We were right there at it.

JANEAL COLBERT: I thought, man, if we would have been here at that time, I was right behind her, who knows what would have happened?

And my heart breaks for the families.

They came out here a good time, and they're not going home.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It's been three days since a terrorist attack stunned New Orleans and the nation, and local officials and residents want answers, asking how clear warning signs were missed.

JP MORRELL, Incoming City Council President, New Orleans: It's been a roller coaster.

There's a lot of anger, a lot of sadness, and I think right now people want to feel safe and want to feel like what happened could never happen again.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ (voice-over): JP Morrell, the incoming City council president, said he is confident in the safety and security of the city as it prepares to host the Super Bowl.

JP MORRELL: The influx of state and federal resources.

There will be more hardened infrastructure in the city than probably ever seen before.

But as a city, we have to really take a deep look and have a deep dive investigation on what went wrong, what things we could have done better, what things were not done correctly, and have a transparent conversation after that investigation as to what occurred, and we're doing that right now.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ (voice-over): After FBI briefings revealed that the suspect made threatening social media posts hours before the attack, Morrell wants to know why they went unnoticed.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: What do you think needs to change to make sure that something like this can't happen again?

JP MORRELL: If Facebook and Instagram and every social media platform has an algorithm to shove Amazon ads in my face, I think if someone says I've been radicalized by ISIS, something should pick up on that.

If people can go on the internet in the United States of America and say they're going to perform a terror attack and there's that much of a delay between that and even a notification to local law enforcement that it's possibility, it's just jarring.

It just -- it makes you question how astute and how focused our intelligence gathering is when people want to be safe.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ (voice-over): The FBI said in an update late Friday that nearly 1,000 tips and leads have streamed in as the investigation into the suspect deepens.

JONATHAN WALSH, Tulane University: People can go rent vehicles and cause havoc.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ (voice-over): Jonathan Walsh is a homeland security and counterterrorism expert at Tulane University.

JONATHAN WALSH: No longer do we have sort of these large actors like al Qaeda or ISIS.

We have these individual people who identify one way or the other.

And that's just something that's very challenging to adapt to.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: There are now barriers on the sidewalk that weren't there before.

Is that something that you think more cities need to replicate?

JONATHAN WALSH: Having those archer barriers is something that lots of cities can do.

It's just a matter of what can we do to make Bourbon Street on New Year's Eve more secure so that the attack doesn't occur there.

And that's really the terrible thing about security planning, is that the dedicated adversary, they're going to shoot their shot.

What you're trying to do as a security professional is make sure that it doesn't happen at your facility, in your street or in your city.

So that's always the challenge.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ (voice-over): City Councilman JP Morrell acknowledges that the New Year's Day attack will forever change this city's relationship with public safety.

JP MORRELL: We're going to have to deal with the French Quarter in a different way than we've done previously.

I think there is a tension between being this open, accepting and accessible city and also being secure.

And we can do both.

But we have to look at that problem without turning this into like, you know, a walled encampment.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Councilman Morrell also told us that the city has received everything it's asked for from the federal government in terms of security support, but he wants to see more formalized federal help for impacted families, from hospital bills to mental health treatment.

For PBS News weekend, I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in New Orleans.