UNDER THE RADAR Starting over is nothing new for thousands of New Orleanians with roots in Vietnam, but many feel they are not being given a voice in the process.

On a cool November day, three brothers in eastern New Orleans proceed with a post-hurricane rite of passage: tearing out Sheetrock and gutting a home to its studs.

Tien Tran -- who has lived in the four-bedroom, two-bath brick home in the 13,000 block of Biscay Court for the past 11 years with his wife, Hong -- wears a mask and wields a hammer. The 42-year-old shrimper and welder is assisted by his brothers, Vinh, 41, and Donnie, 27, with a task that elsewhere in the city signals the first step in the rebuilding process in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

But in the east, deconstruction may not end in reconstruction.

Uncertainty shadows the Tran family and other residents of Vietnamese ancestry eager to rebuild in this ravaged part of the city located east of the Industrial Canal and north of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet.

"They say they're going to bulldoze the area," said Tran, who sometimes composes his own sentences in English and at other times has his words translated into English by Donnie, a military historian for the Army National Guard who lives in Houston and has taken off a couple of weeks to help with repairs. Those repairs are limited to temporarily patching the leaking roof and removing the mold-laden home's interior.

All three brothers wonder aloud whether their work will be for naught.

"We don't know what's going to happen," said Tran, who paid off his mortgage a few months before the Aug. 29 storm.

Until the government crafts its vision for the years to come, gossip and speculation rule.

Tran gets his information from a network of family and friends who analyze dozens of official post-Katrina statements for clues. The latest angst-producing statement about the area's future comes from a report by a panel of more than 50 specialists in urban and post-disaster planning. And the preliminary report offering short- and long-term recommendations seems to have exacerbated feelings of uncertainty among Tran and other residents of Vietnamese ancestry, who represent the third-largest ethnic group in eastern New Orleans.

 

Ready to rebuild

 

Although the Urban Land Institute report was praised by Mayor Ray Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back Commission, it troubles a Vietnamese community that the Rev. Vien Nguyen said is "more than 20,000 strong."

Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam, a Catholic church in the east, was among Vietnamese-American residents who filled seats at a commission meeting Monday at the Sheraton Hotel. Members of the advisory board were peppered with commentaries about the community's sense of exclusion from the planning process and declarations of their desire to return home.

The Urban Land Institute has suggested that eastern New Orleans and the city's other hardest-hit neighborhoods need additional study, but that they also have the potential for mass buyouts and future green space.

"We were shocked," Nguyen said of the report that he contends was crafted without input from men and women of Vietnamese ancestry.

"We were never invited to the table," he said. "Somehow, we need to be part of this process. And . . . we have the right to be part of the community-driven process."

Homeowners, according to the ULI, should be compensated for property at pre-Katrina values. If scattershot redevelopment is allowed in the worst-hit areas, it noted, homeowners will begin to rehabilitate houses on partially abandoned streets, creating shanty towns with little to no property value.

The Urban Land Institute was paired with Nagin's commission shortly after Hurricane Katrina. It has spent the past several weeks working at no cost to advise the 17-member commission as it attempts to develop a comprehensive rebuilding strategy. Most of the experts on the panel run major corporations or municipalities, such as Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy and Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields. The institute's final report is due next month.

Nguyen told commission members Monday that 95 percent of his parishioners want to come home.

"We are not just ready to rebuild to pre-Katrina level," he said; his parishioners intend to rebuild better.

 

Questions abound

 

And Vietnamese-Americans in the east are rebuilding, despite uncertainty and the absence of utilities provided to less-damaged areas of the city by the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board and Entergy.

Tran said he received water service Tuesday, but he still has no electricity or gas.

In some respects, Tran and others who left Vietnam to begin their lives anew in eastern New Orleans feel as if they are wandering in the dark during the restoration phase of the natural disaster.

"We need some kind of light to guide us," said Sister Thien-An Nguyen of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

When should residents in the east rebuild, she asked; should they rebuild, and where's the plan?

Hien Cao said his home in the 13,000 block of Chateau Court is evidence that broad-brush observations about the destruction in eastern New Orleans don't hold true for some neighborhoods.

"There was no flooding in my home," said Cao, who has been living in Le Thi Thanh, a Catholic church in Algiers. "Neighborhoods between Michoud Boulevard and Bullard Avenue were not as badly flooded as other parts of eastern New Orleans."

Cao said his home, which had "minor roof damage," received water and sewerage services about a week ago. He said he intends to move back into his home this weekend because on Tuesday, "we got electricity," and the gas is scheduled to be reconnected Friday.

"We plan to rebuild our community even better than before," Cao declared. "And we want to help everyone in New Orleans east return."

 

'We can get through this'

 

Not knowing what the city plans for the area affects more than feelings as Cao and others try to restore their neighborhoods and commercial centers. Uncertainty has economic consequences for Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs.

"I own a strip mall on Read Boulevard in New Orleans east," said Katrina Bui. "Blockbuster, Domino's Pizza, Barry Manufacturing, Wing Zone and Baskin-Robbins all left because no one knows what's going on in New Orleans east."

The city, she said, needs to clearly explain how it intends to rebuild.

"We left Vietnam and we've made this our second home," Bui said.

Vietnamese people have dealt with adversity before, she noted, adding "we can get through this."

But Vietnamese people, Bui said, "need to be kept in the loop."

City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis agrees.

"We've been trying since Katrina to get specificity, inclusion and clarity from all of the agencies and government entities directing the re-entry and repopulation of eastern New Orleans," said Willard-Lewis. "The residents of eastern New Orleans need to be supported in the rebuilding process with a sense of urgency and a complement of resources."

Meanwhile, Tran and his brothers continue their work to rid the family home of its flood-damaged innards while hoping that Hong; Tran; his mother, Hue; and Vinh, a brother who rented a room in the house pre-Katrina, may one day return.

Anything else done to the house, he said, will depend on the day the city announces its specific plans for the neighborhood.

. . . . . . .
 

Leslie Williams can be reached at lwilliams@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3358.

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