Oak Island continues to weather storms


Cathy Tran holds a torn picture of her family, the only piece of property she keeps in her tent.

Survivors of Hurricane Ike weathered yet another storm this week. Harsh thunderstorms hit Southeast Texas Tuesday night and residents of Oak Island were forced to deal with more hardship.

Cathy Tran has been staying in a tent since her property was cleared of debris.  Tuesday night Tran had to travel to Anahuac to stay with a friend for the night in order to make it through the storm.

“The rain made it miserable to come back to. We are all paying attention to the weather so we can see when something is coming and get ready for it,” Tran said.

When she came back to her property the city workers told her that the sewer lines around her property were impossible to find. She said that this will be important information when her FEMA trailer finally arrives.

“It is such a slow process for people to get trailers. We have 27 Vietnamese families in Oak Island and only five of them have trailers. Two weeks ago the number was only two,” Father Joseph Khanh Ho, pastor of St. Louis, Winnie, said.  

Many residents of Oak Island have left to stay with friends. Most of those who have stayed are Vietnamese or Hispanic.

Thanh Huynh and his family had to combine three tents under their carport in order to make it through the heavy rains. Their trailer was just delivered and even though electricity and sewer aren’t hooked up, they are moving in.

“We are drying tents in between the bad weather and just waiting. We don’t know when everything with the trailer will be finished so all we can do is wait and hope for good weather,” Huynh said.

Father Ho has been visiting the families in Oak Island every week since the mandatory evacuation was lifted. At first he was bringing supplies on a regular basis before the distribution centers were set up. Now he visits the community to check on the families he has met and make sure that they are safe.


The Huynh family combined three tents under their carport to combat the weather.

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