The terrified faces of impoverished black people trapped on rooftops or left to die in fetal positions on the side of the road will forever be the image of Hurricane Katrina — a disgraceful, pathetic example of how poor Americans are left to fend for themselves in the face of a national disaster.

At the very least, a national dialogue on race and poverty has made its way to the forefront, where the mainstream media has addressed how institutionalized racism is alive and well in this country.

On the fringes of this dialogue is a handful of Koreans who comprise a quiet community of mostly first-generation small business owners. Their livelihoods were destroyed and their homes flooded, but their insignificant numbers go unnoticed by the media and the government. This is partly due to the fact that most of them had cars and evacuated before Katrina hit. Also, they have stayed out of sight. Their faces are not at shelters — instead they have been able to rely on the Korean community for food and housing.

In a telling irony, the people born and raised here are forced to depend on inadequate resources and a government that, at the outset, abandoned them, while these recent immigrants were able to band together for support.

***

With a population of less than 400 in the city of New Orleans, around 700 in adjacent Jefferson Parish, and 160 in Biloxi, Miss., Koreans in the Gulf Coast are scattered and few, a little recognized subgroup in the local Asian American population, where the Vietnamese are greatest in numbers and the most visible.

Now the people behind the counters of dry cleaners and beauty supply stores are faced with a plight that is an intricate mess of details.

Pouring the bulk of their profits back into their small businesses, Koreans here have little to no savings, a method that kept their livelihoods afloat. But now, after Katrina, they have nothing. Their own insurance companies don’t speak Korean, and no one took the time to go over the fine print with them: full coverage does not include flood damage.

Those who didn’t own businesses often worked at places where they were paid in cash. For some, this was because of their undocumented status. Unemployment assistance is not available to them, and if they apply for the $2,000 cash grant the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is giving out, it may put them at risk with immigration officials.

An evacuee staying at the Korean Baptist Church sleeps in the small sanctuary.

For a population of middle-aged immigrants who are not Internet savvy or fluent in English, the questions of where to go and what to do now is a maze of confusion that needs translation. But those in power appear unequipped to address their needs.

“[The Red Cross has] received millions of dollars from Asian American communities because just like everyone else, Asian Americans have been very generous on supporting the Red Cross,” says Juliet Bae, staff lawyer with the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC).