Swept Into the Background
Scholars say that distrust of government officials by Vietnamese hurricane evacuees may have had its roots in the Black community.
By Lydia Lum
The entire world saw the images of Black New Orleans residents left homeless, jobless and helpless by the arrival and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The pictures and stories dominated mainstream news outlets for weeks.
What hasn’t been widely publicized, however, are the Katrina-related ordeals of Vietnamese Americans, another socio-economically disadvantaged population along the Gulf Coast. While many Blacks sought shelter from rising floodwaters at the New Orleans Superdome, many Vietnamese residents hurried to Houston, home of the largest Vietnamese community in the South. And while Black survivors sought refuge at mammoth shelters like Houston’s Astrodome, Vietnamese evacuees instead looked for help from their own. The location of choice for many was a Houston shopping center of mostly Asian-owned businesses. In the days and weeks after Katrina, the parking lot of the popular public meeting place morphed into an impromptu staging area.
According to reports, some evacuees slept in their cars for several days before community leaders arrived and referred them to Vietnamese temples, churches and families willing to house them. Houston residents showed up at the shopping strip with donations of food, clothes and cash. Evacuees who had already found refuge in the city returned to the shopping center to learn the latest flood-related news.
