Surviving Katrina and its aftermath: evacuation and community mobilization by Vietnamese Americans and African Americans

Abstract

The flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005 uncovered critical issues in local, state, and national strategies for emergency preparedness and disaster relief. The Katrina disaster reveals the persistent racial inequality and economic disparities in American society. This paper examines the pre-Katrina socio-spatial configuration of the African-American and Vietnamese-American communities in an eastern New Orleans suburb. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data and compare the two groups, our study reveals media are the first and foremost information sources for both groups. Many Katrina victims evacuated more than once, some not with their families during their first and subsequent relocations. However, the communities mobilized to provide intra- and inter-group self-help among families and relatives, friends and neighbors, while receiving assistance from community organizations, religious institutions, and the government. Compared to African Americans, there were higher percentages of Vietnamese Americans learning about Katrina's impending landfall from government sources, evacuating before Katrina's landfall, and being more satisfied with assistance provided by the government. Those who are lacking in English skills reported more difficulties compared to their co-ethnics. These findings lead to several policy recommendations.

Keywords:

• African Americans
• Vietnamese Americans
• Hurricane Katrina
• evacuation
• New Orleans

Acknowledgements

Two US National Science Foundation grants (0555135 and 0555086) enabled the authors to conduct this project. The authors are indebted to all participants for their time and insights, especially to Cyndi Nguyen and Thu Nguyen, Father Vien The Nguyen, and VIET volunteers in New Orleans and Houston; Maanulwa Mukule and Multicultural Alliance in Houston; as well as Kuo-Yi Chung, Colleen Clemency, Syed Hussaini, Kim Le, Chung-Chen Lee, Hanh Nguyen, Lan Nguyen, Tuyen Pham, and Yun Zhou of Arizona State University for their invaluable assistance.

Notes

1. The value 0.75 for pre-Katrina segregation level indicates a high segregation between black and white, meaning 75% of African Americans or whites would need to move in order to achieve equal distributions between these two racial groups.

2. The definitions of residents’ spoken English ability are based on the questions from the US Census. The census asks people whether they speak English ‘very well,’ ‘well,’ ‘not well,’ or ‘not at all.’ ‘Linguistically-isolated households’ denote households in which no one 14 years or older speaks English well or very well. For more information on Village de l'Est as a whole, see ‘Village de l'Est Neighborhood: Immigration & Language’ (2004).

3. The high percentage of those rescued from their houses by boat warrants some explanation as they were brought to Chef Menteur Highway and then were transported by auto or truck to another more distant location. Chef Menteur Highway is no more than 1 mile from their houses as a first evacuation location, but road transport comprised the largest proportion of their first evacuation trip.

4. This situation also reflects how difficult it has been to contact renters who have since scattered throughout the country and are likely not to return. This constituted a great challenge for the research team, particularly because the study area is small with limited numbers of renters prior to Katrina in either group. Inter-group relations prior and after Katrina are not the primary focus of this current paper, but a topic that will be discussed in subsequent publications.

5. While not a major focus of the study, refugees and immigrants are two different legal statuses in the US immigration system; one of the differences being that refugees are entitled to certain benefits that are not available to regular immigrants.