At least 100 deaths were reported as of Tuesday after hurricane Katrina battered the southern United States, with property damage estimated at US$35 billion, the most ever for a hurricane in the country. After levees broke outside of the Louisiana city of New Orleans, which lies 3 m below sea level, almost the entire city is submerged.
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Evelyn Turner weeps next to the body of her common law husband who, being a lung cancer patient, died when his oxygen supply was cutoff due to hurricane Katrina. /AP-Yonhap
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Korean expatriate communities are thought to have taken their share of losses. New Orleans has some 2,500 Korean expatriates, but communication in the city is cut and their fate could not be confirmed.
The Korean consul-general in Houston, Min Dong-seok, told the Chosun Ilbo on Wendesday, "I think most of the Korean expatriates took shelter in accordance with the forced evacuation order, but it appears massive property losses will be unavoidable." He said there has been no word of Korean fatalities.
Min said New Orleans had become inaccessible as bridges were swept away and highways submerged. He said there was no electricity, and all forms of communication were down. Only emergency relief and rescue teams were able to approach the city, he said, and it could take several months to pump out the water so that people can return to their homes.
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New Orleans, Louisiana, which sustained terrible damage from Hurricane Katrina. I-10, the highway that runs through downtown, and surrounding roads were submerged Tuesday. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said 80 percent of the city was under water.
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Most Koreans in New Orleans run their own businesses, so the longer the town remains underwater, the more their losses will grow. Chun Tae-il, the former head of the Korean association of New Orleans, who was evacuated to the Louisiana state capital of Baton Rouge, told Yonhap News, "New Orleans' Kenner and Metairie suburbs, where many Koreans live, are submerged under close to 2 m of water, and downtown offices and stores are completely flooded¡¦ Not one Korean in New Orleans will be able to escape losses."
In the case of the neighboring state of Mississippi, there are 300-400 Koreans living in the southernmost part of the state, with about 2,000 in the state as a whole, accoreding to the consul-general. ¡°We presume some of them experienced losses as well."
Meanwhile, Hurricane Katrina has miraculously spared the Hyundai Motors Assembly plant in Alabama, one of the worst-hit state, the company¡¯s Washington office reported Tuesday. Since before the hurricane made landfall, the office had been in constant touch with the Alabama factory to monitor the situation there. ¡°Thanks to the hurricane basically skipping the northern Montgomery region of Alabama where the factory is located, we got away completely intact,¡± it said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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