Sep 09, 2005  |  By: ANDREW KEEGAN  | COMMENTS     

New Orleans residents Richard Read and John D’Addario consider themselves lucky. A week after Hurricane Katrina decimated their city, killing as yet untold thousands, the couple recalls how close they came to being victims instead of survivors.

“We had options,” Read said. “Sticking it out, going to a hotel near New Orleans or staying with friends. We had a hard time choosing the right game plan until we had one of those thunderbolt moments Saturday night and said, ‘We need to leave — and now.’”

Within two hours of reaching that decision, the couple gathered their four dogs, packed a few belongings and headed for a friend’s house in Lafayette, La., about 120 miles northwest of New Orleans.

Now they wonder what happened to their home and when they can return.

“We don’t have any definite plans,” Read said. “Like most New Orleans residents, we’re in limbo. We actually feel kind of guilty being here. We’ll probably be here between three to six months.”

As Hurricane Katrina evacuees spread out across the country, gay and HIV-positive survivors of the storm may face particular hurdles as they seek shelter and begin the daunting task of rebuilding their lives.

Residents of Lazarus House, New Orleans’ primary hospice for people with HIV, had no place to go to escape the storm, and many now have no place to go to recover from it, according to Robert Banks.

Banks, who lives in Phoenix, operates the organization’s Web site, lazarushouse.net, while his mother Susan serves as director for the non-profit agency.

Hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents fled before the massive Category 4 hurricane slammed ashore Aug. 29 with winds at more than 140 miles per hour. But the 22 residents of Lazarus House, including several gay men, had zero options, Banks said.

“They were stuck,” he said. “When you have people with this type of medical condition, no one wanted to take them.”

Banks said he received a call from his mother three days after the hurricane hit.

“The National Guard had stopped by on Tuesday and told Mom they would come back in a day or two,” Banks said. “She called me on Thursday, and said, ‘Get us out of here.’”

‘A difficult time’
By Friday morning, Sept. 2, Lazarus House residents had been evacuated to various shelters, according to Banks.

“Staff members gave each resident enough medication for at least a week, and a schedule of when to take each one,” he said.

Now they face the difficult task of locating temporary housing.

“We’ve paired a stronger person with a weaker individual to act as a buddy,” Banks said. “But we are having a difficult time finding anyone to take two people in this medical condition. While we can always use monetary donations, we really need places for our residents.”

Banks said the organization will pay for travel should out-of-state options become available. Donations, including offers of housing, can be made through the group’s Web site.

HIV-positive people are especially vulnerable when displaced, according to Ron Valdiserri, deputy director for HIV, STD & TB prevention at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in Atlanta.

“It’s becoming apparent that health workers are just now beginning to grapple with HIV-positive individuals without their medication,” Valdiserri said. “From a public health standpoint, you don’t want patients missing their medication because it can lead to the development of resistance.”

But HIV-positive residents from New Orleans would face even greater risks if they remained in the city, Valdiserri said, citing unsanitary conditions like no running water or sewers.

“That’s a dangerous situation for those who have healthy immune systems,” Valdiserri said. “It can be fatal for a person who is HIV-positive.”

Currently, the CDC does not have information on what steps are being taken at individual shelters to provide for HIV-positive individuals, Valdiserri said.

Gay couples not ‘spouses’
Initial relief efforts in the three states slammed by Hurricane Katrina — Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi — focused on meeting individual needs for food, water, shelter and medical care. But when efforts turn from rescue to recovery, gay couples may find themselves at a decided disadvantage — especially those whose partners perished in the monster storm.

The Defense of Marriage Act, which became law in 1996, denies federal recognition to same-sex marriages and gives states the right to refuse to recognize gay marriages licensed in other states.

Widows and widowers from heterosexual marriages can receive surviving spouse Social Security benefits, which gay couples are ...