Posted on 06/05/2006 3:33:09 PM PDT by catholicfreeper
BAYOU LA BATRE, ALA. -- The afternoon before Hurricane Katrina arrived, Vo Loan, 11, who like other Asian-American children in Bayou La Batre serves as English translator for her parents, was out with her mother when the police rapped at their door Her father, Vietnam-born Nguyen Hung, answered. The two officers warned Nguyen in English that flooding from the major hurricane could be deadly and that his family should evacuate. He didn't understand, he explained to a reporter last week, speaking through his daughter at their small white house. "My van was broken, but I could have found another way to get us all out," Nguyen said. When Katrina stuck early on Aug. 29, the family escaped the rising water in their home by taking shelter in their beat-up 1989 van in a nearby parking lot on higher ground. "There was no communication infrastructure in place for the Asian community on the Gulf Coast before the storm. None," said Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of Virginia-based Boat People SOS. "We knew we had to change that before this year's storm season." To that end, the Vietnamese advocacy group has spent the nine months since Katrina laying the groundwork for a Gulf Coast-wide news network set to be available through satellite television and radio spots this hurricane season. The programming, for now, is broadcast only in Vietnamese, but the group hopes to open a Biloxi, Miss., radio station this summer that could also deliver information in Laotian, Cambodian, Spanish and other languages. Few Asian networks "We want to be a translation resource for every underserved population. If during a disaster you have thousands of people who don't know what's happening or what they're supposed to do, it could create total chaos," Nguyen Dinh Thang said. At this point, ....
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Tough cookies. If you choose to live here, learn some of the language.
I hate to be crass - but maybe if these people knew some English, they would have been in better shape.
There is a "communications infrastructure" in place.
It's called English!
Yeah, it's dangerous to live in a country where you don't understand the prevailing language. Sheesh.
Is it even possible to broadcast in every language imaginable to keep people safe, or should there be a wee bit of personal responsibility involved here?
Learn the language and stop whining.
And lemme guess.... they want it federally funded.
Communications infrastructure, indeed.
When I worked in Venezuela if it was an American Drilling Rig we did our reports in English but spoke to the workers in Spanish. When I worked on a Venezuelan Drilling Rig we did everything in Spanish. The company paying the bill picked the language.
I am not sure people are whining here. It appears that groups are trying to take care of the problem to some degree. I understand your viewpoint but I am not sure how easy it is to have some 70 year old man learn English in 9 months so he can understand the emergency broadcasting system after his life has pretty much been uprooted. It appears the younger generation is fine, its just the elders here that are of concern
The Vietnamese that have come into the country through Bayou La Batre are good, decent people. They're all faithful Catholics, they raise their children right, there is no Asian mob down in the Bayou. Their children are consistently the best and the brightest in the public schools in that part of the county, and in general, they're just nice people. It is an absolute tragedy what Katrina did to that town. Yes, my neighborhood in Mobile recieved flood damage, the difference is, almost all of us still have our livelihoods, and while houses were in fact gutted, very few homes up here have been condemned. The archbishop was down there this weekend for Pentecost services at their church, which was badly damaged. This town is a piece of Americana, a fishing village of international fame, and I think we should try to preserve it, and preserve it's residents too.
While on this subject though, Mobile County is considering a new evacuation plan that would provide for the evacuation of those who could not otherwise leave through the use of school buses and shelters outside of the strike zone. I have full confidence if a storm threatens this plan will go off without a hitch
I saw something on the news how the fishing industry that the Vietnamese had down there may never recover. Its Pretty sad.
They should have quickly printed and handed out a bunch of English language flyers. I'm sure at least one person in the home could have read the flyers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.