Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The Vietnamese government will provide assistance to Vietnamese-Americans in the three southern US states that have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina, a deputy minister has said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Phu Binh, expressing deep concern over the situation of overseas Vietnamese living in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi states, also extended his deepest condolences to the disaster victims.

"We will provide aid within our capacity to victims, including overseas Vietnamese compatriots," Binh, who is also Chairman of the National Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, told the press September 7.

Vietnamese religious and charitable organizations and individuals in the US are already raising funds to assist the victims.

"We have asked Vietnamese diplomatic missions in the US to inquire into the situation and join hands in helping those unlucky people overcome difficulties and stabilize their lives," Binh said.

He called on the overseas Vietnamese community in the US and in other countries to extend help to their unfortunate brethren.

The plight of victims

Although there are no official statistics yet on the damage caused by the hurricane, it is estimated that some 50,000 Vietnamese-Americans have been hit by the disaster.

"It looked like bombing by a B-52," was how Quan Hong Huynh, 55, of Louisiana, described the damage.

Huynh, president of the Vietnamese American Community in Louisiana, had sent his wife and three children to Houston before the storm hit while he himself stayed behind "to help my people". He learned before he too fled that only the tip of his house remained above the water.

Several hundred Vietnamese-Americans were sheltered in a Houston Catholic church after the storm and flooding damaged or destroyed their homes 300 miles to the east.

Some 15,000, about 50 percent of Louisiana's Vietnamese population, were moved to Houston, the adopted home of one of the largest Vietnamese communities. Others could be sent to Texas soon, from as far away as Mississippi and its devastated shrimp farming community.

Most of the storm victims remain housed at church shelters in Houston, or with friends or relatives, but most appeared to have heeded early warnings and left before Katrina hit.

"We thought when we evacuated it would be like before – a couple of days and then back," Liem Le, 39, who came to the US in 1980, said.

"Now, we don't have anything," the production manager at a plant manufacturing plastic bags, said. "We don't know what to do."

A Houston shopping mall catering to Vietnamese is serving as a staging area for many refugees, who started showing up a week ago to find an air conditioned haven.

In Mississippi, where like in Texas, many Vietnamese work the Gulf for shrimp, 13-year-old Nick Luong told of how his family lost their home in Biloxi but saved their shrimp boat.

The family of Viet Thu Linh, 55, was not as fortunate. Linh has lived in Biloxi since he was five and now works at an oyster plant. His son had a fleet of fishing boats. He believes all six sank.

(Source: Vietnam News Agency & AP)
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 08 September, 2005, 10:56:10 (GMT+7)
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