Vietnamese in New Orleans Versailles Apartments in New Orleans East and the other half going to Kingstown Marrero Apartments. Both New Orleans East and the Westbank were settled by the Vietnamese at the same time. In later periods, Vietnamese settlements spread to other parts of the metropolitan New Orleans area including other sections of New Orleans East, Avondale, and the City of Gretna. The New Orleans East section was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Sara Roahen, the author of "Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table", wrote that the Vietnamese had been accustomed to hardship and therefore were not as
Effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans area hospitals that were flooded or damaged. Reports from the Methodist Hospital indicated that people were dying of dehydration and exhaustion while the staff worked unendingly in horrendous conditions. The first floor of the hospital flooded and the dead were stacked in a second floor operating room. Patients requiring ventilators were kept alive with hand-powered resuscitation bags. Among the many hospitals shut down by damage related to the hurricane was the public hospital serving New Orleans, Charity Hospital, which was also the only trauma center serving that region. The destruction of the hospital's structure has forced the continued closure as