Though residents were allowed to return to clean up their houses in Versailles in early October, no one could stay there past 8 p.m. At the time, the soil in certain areas was being tested for toxicity.
"It was unsanitary, but people wanted to come back because it's a close-knit community with a lot of elders," says Mimi-Cristien Nguyen. "They just wanted to go home. They have this idea that they'll come back, rebuild, and live together again."
Some families have known each other for 50 years, tracing back to North Vietnam. In 1954, many evacuated to South Vietnam after Communist forces ousted French colonists, and then again to the United States in the 1970s and 1980s following the Vietnam War. After all this evacuation, they bonded like family.
VietBAK wants to provide long-term, direct assistance as much as possible. They say long-term efforts in the area should focus on rebuilding, housing and employment.
Though there was no electricity or running water, they slowly began cleaning up houses, a small step in the physical and mental rebuilding process.
Since the group left, the area has been open for people to move back. As of Thursday, the Rev. Nguyen says there was electricity in some parts of Versailles for the first time in three months.
"We have electricity just now," he said from his cell phone late Thursday afternoon. "In the church and the houses around the church and the streets, the power is on. That happened just three or four hours ago."
One of the unexpected outcomes of the hurricanes is more mingling and working together with the majority-black congregation churches in the neighborhood. He has sent 20 volunteers each weekend for the past three weeks to help out the other churches.
"We belong to New Orleans East as a whole body, so we're working as a whole body," he says. "We're trying to work together to revive this area."
Among his parish, he says about 600 have been coming in daily to work on their homes. And since the electricity is back on, he predicts more people will return this weekend.
There's been talk of developers wanting to turn the area into a casino, and other investors have been scouting the region. But community members are determined to rebuild their community.
On Sunday, Viet Bay Area Katrina will hold a fund-raiser from noon to 3 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. There will be food, music, art, a slideshow and video footage shot by UC Berkeley students, as well as report-outs from another group of volunteers who recently returned from the Gulf Coast. Tickets are $10-$30, sliding scale at the door. Visit http://www.vietbayareakatrina.org for more information.
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