Korean Residential Area in New Orleans Flooded

In New Orleans, one of the areas hardest hit by the deadly Hurricane Katrina, much damage was inflicted on around 2,500 Korean residents, most of whose houses and stores were completely flooded.

In a telephone interview with Yonhap News Agency (YNA) on August 30, a former president of the Korean Society of New Orleans, Jeon Tae-il, said, “Houses and stores of Korean residents in New Orleans were entirely inundated, and almost all Korean residents are faced with a major crisis of losing the basics of life.”

Jeon noted that the Metairie and Kenner areas where Koreans are clustered have been flooded with close to two meters of water and that the urban district in which offices and stores of Korean residents are collectively located has also been completely inundated.

Jeon said, “Most of residents in New Orleans evacuated to nearby cities such as Baton Rouge and Houston, but it is not clear whether there are still Korean residents in New Orleans,” and added, “Nor it is clear if there is any loss of life.”

It was reported that most of the Korean residents in New Orleans are self-employed in the fields of laundry, beauty salon work, and cleaning, and that they had evacuated themselves to suburbs after the hurricane evacuation warning.

Jin Lee leej@donga.com