Katrina evacuee starts over in Houston, opens cafe

One year ago at this time Beth Nguyen, owner of the Jazzie Cafe, 1221 West 19th St., was working in her family's New Orleans restaurant not far from the French Quarter. Her family had been in the restaurant business in New Orleans for a long time and were well known for their good food. Beth and her 10 year old daughter were living with her parents who had a home for many years on the east side of the city in the Bullard Road area.  But in August of last year her life and that of her family were changed dramatically by Hurricane Katrina.

Beth says she first heard about the hurricane while vacationing aboard a cruise ship in the Gulf. As the ship approached New Orleans the waters became very rough but the ship docked ahead of the storm. By then the whole city was in an evacuation mode.  She and other family members were undecided as to whether to stay or evacuate. Her parents did not want to leave their home. When the Mayor issued mandatory evacuation orders the next day, all the family members except her father agreed to leave.  Her father was adamant about staying in his home. Beth packed a few clothes for herself and her daughter, and left with other family members in two cars to head to Houston where a friend lived. Beth, driving one of the cars on the congested outbound evacuation route, entered the wrong lane and was forced to head to Mississippi instead of Texas. She had to drive through Mississippi before she could turn around and head east again. It added six more hours onto her trip to the Texas border.

On the way, Beth called her sister in Metairie and ask her to convince their father to evacuate. The sister was successful and took their father to Baton Rouge where he wanted to stay with an uncle. After dropping him off near the uncle's residence, the sister headed for Houston. Two days later Beth's family learned her father never made it to the uncle's home. "We actually lost track of my father for seven days," Beth says, "we had no idea what had happened to him." Finally, using a borrowed cell phone, he called them and said that he tried to go to an evacuation center but they were all full and he had no food. The family rushed to Baton Rouge only to find their father weak and in pain. They returned to Houston with him and took him to a hospital. He was diagnosed with an aneurysm and had surgery immediately. 

Beth and her family had crowded into a friend's home in Pearland. In all there were 15 evacuees in the friend's house. They had few clothes and little money with them. They received some help with clothing and gas money from Catholic Charities. However, Beth says they had great difficulty getting any help from FEMA. She says they heard about all the services being given to evacuees at the Astrodome and went there for help, but they were not allowed to enter because only those brought there by buses could be serviced there. Beth and her family had driven their own cars from New Orleans and thus were not eligible for help inside the Astrodome. They then went to the George R. Brown Center and waited in line for 12 hours to get FEMA help before being told that only those staying at the center could get help there.

Discouraged and exhausted, Beth and her family could only wonder why they were being excluded from all the help. "After all, we were hard working citizens who had paid taxes," Beth says, "but we were not let in anywhere for help." Beth and her family persisted in their efforts to get help and eventually were allowed to enter the Astrodome to apply for FEMA help and medical services. They also were able to get some food assistance from the state.

After two months of living in the crowded conditions in the home, Beth applied for an apartment voucher while the rest of her family returned to New Orleans. There they found their homes and restaurant had been flooded with up to 7 ft. of water. Meanwhile, Beth moved into an apartment in Houston with her daughter and a niece where they have been living the past 5 months. Recently she was notified that her voucher would expire at the end of the month, so she will need to move. Her family members are still struggling to repair and rebuild their houses and reopen their restaurant. Beth wanted to return to New Orleans but felt it was best to stay in Houston and look for a job. 

She had a difficult time finding a job with adequate pay so she turned to the one source she knew best - the restaurant business. She gathered what resources she and her family had available, and opened a small restaurant in Houston called the Jazzie Cafe.  With the help of her boyfriend, who also worked in a New Orleans restaurant, Beth plans to bring a taste of that city's famous food to near northwest Houston. The brightly colored cafe has already gotten rave reviews for its food, which includes New Orleans style meat pie, boudin link crawfish, hot sausage patties, shrimp, catfish, and po-boys. Beth is determined to start anew and put the disaster that was Katrina behind her. Welcome her to the neighborhood and try a Po-boy.