Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Le Nguyen: A Stormy Boat Ride

Profile:  Le Nguyen
City:  Biloxi, MS
County:  Harrison County

Type:  Written Interview
Author:  Joshua Norman
Publisher:  The Sun Herald

If there is a line between poor and desperate, Hurricane Katrina smashed it for Le Nguyen and her husband Chau Nguyen.

The Nguyens lost their home, car, worldly possessions and sense of self-reliance to the storm.

Worst of all was what the post-hurricane chaos did to her unborn twins.

“I lost them,” Nguyen said Wednesday through translator and case worker Bao Le at the Vietnamese service organization, Boat People SOS. She bowed her head and started crying before continuing.

“They didn’t survive,” Nguyen said. “They were too weak and couldn’t sustain… I didn’t have much energy.”

Nguyen cried again, and said she would not have any more children.

The Nguyens’ story is an extreme example of the tribulations of the Vietnamese community at large, but local Vietnamese said it is indicative of the tremendous problems many in the normally self-sustaining community have endured since Aug. 29.

Shortly after the storm, the Sun Herald profiled the Nguyens while they were still stranded aboard their wrecked shrimp boat on the Industrial Canal.

Le, who believes she is in her mid-30s but is not sure because she was orphaned at a young age, and Chau, 51, were being helped at the time by FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross and other service organizations. Yet somehow things got worse and their struggle to maintain their own health may not have been the worst of it.

The Nguyens slept under a bridge at Exit 38 on Interstate 10 for several weeks until a FEMA trailer was finally delivered to their leveled home, Le said.

By scraping together loans and grants from friends and Boat People, Nguyen said they finally got their boat out on the water to start shrimping.

Though they were able to earn a few hundred dollars here and there - enough to pay back many of the loans - several important pieces of equipment on the boat broke and before long the bank was calling in its big loan, said Thao Vu, the Nguyens’ case-file manager at Boat People SOS.

Boat People came through and put the bank at arm’s length again for the Nguyens, but now they are almost right back where they started: a leaky boat, a mountain of debt, no home, no steady income, unfilled prescriptions and only the hope of shrimping getting them out of bed each morning to face the day.

Vu said she sees many cases like the Nguyens’ and her job and that of her agency is simply to guide them forward as best they are able.

“With the hurricane, it’s like you make a little step forward and then a big backslide,” Vu said. “Most of us lost our jobs. Every major aspect of our lives has been affected. Most of my clients’ homes were destroyed. They only have a slab left.”

Vu said the hope is there still, though, and even in the case of the Nguyens, she believes life will somehow go forward.

Le Nguyen still manages to smile sometimes.

She broke out with an ear-to-ear grin Wednesday when she saw Raymond Turner. The construction worker at the Hard Rock Casino site is near where her boat is docked. Recently, he gathered some coworkers to help her and her husband weld parts of their boat.

“Hey, this is Mississippi,” Turner said. “They needed some help, so I helped.”

Le said that is exactly what she needs right now.

Before the storm: Le Nguyen lived in a rented home in Point Cadet and helped her husband, Chau Nguyen, 51, shrimp. She was about five months pregnant with twins.

How did you survive the storm? They chose to ride out the storm aboard their boat on the Industrial Canal. Le and Chau lost everything except the clothes on their backs and had a horrifying ordeal aboard their shrimp boat during the storm. They ended up living aboard the damaged vessel for some time. Even after they got the boat working, they were forced to live under an overpass of Interstate 10 for a while until their FEMA trailer was delivered.

How are you surviving now? Le lost her twins after the storm. She said she had very little energy and could not sustain her pregnancy.

The bank also threatened to repossess their boat because of outstanding debt.

Eventually, the Nguyens got things in order. FEMA, the Red Cross and other large aid agencies helped them get food and clothes. Friends and Boat People SOS, a Vietnamese community organization, provided enough loans for them to not lose their boat. Even a kindly construction worker or two near where their boat is docked at the Hard Rock Casino has lent them a hand in their recovery.

Now, they shrimp with their boat - which is still a work in progress - as often as they can and use all profits to repay their friends and fix the boat.

“Once I get my boat fixed, I can take care of myself,” Nguyen said.

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