In the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Katrina, many were impacted far beyond what the world had anticipated. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed while hundreds of lives have been lost. Death and destruction was a common sight on most television broadcasts and media outlets.

Countless survivors are now indefinitely homeless and in need of food, safe drinking water and medical care. It is estimated that tens of thousands of residents in affected areas will need temporary housing for months to come.

The Gay & Lesbian Times caught up with a few members of San Diego’s GLBT community directly impacted by the hurricane, including Paul Harris, a Clairemont resident who had traveled to New Orleans early for Southern Decadence, an annual celebration held during Labor Day weekend.

Harris arrived in New Orleans on Friday, Aug. 26. When Mayor Ray Nagin issued evacuation orders on Sunday, Aug. 28, Harris immediately attempted to take a bus or train out of the city, but the Greyhound/Amtrak station was closed. Eventually he went over to the Superdome, where about 400 people were waiting to get in after being frisked by security.

When Katrina hit New Orleans on Monday, Aug. 29, fear took over the Superdome when two large panels on the roof blew off.

“People were paranoid the whole thing might go,” Harris said. “Monday afternoon I overheard one of the national guards saying he thought the next day rioting could take place in the Superdome. He apparently had experience, but I thought, ‘No way.’”

By Wednesday, Aug. 31, there were 20,000 people in the Superdome. Conditions quickly deteriorated, with no running water and toilets overflowing with waste. People tracked it all over the building and stench became ubiquitous, Harris recalled.

Eventually Harris was approached by an Australian man named Bud Hopes, who acted as the leader of a group of mostly international students who had been staying at a hostel in the French Quarter before the hurricane hit.

Harris was able to leave the Superdome that same day. A staff sergeant who had been working with Hopes got the group of them assembled and led them out a back patio exit. “We were to walk through, but it was an extremely nerve-racking thing. If people knew we were getting smuggled out it could be seen as favoritism and it could set off a riot,” he said.

The group of about 100 people was escorted through a side exit to a sports arena next door to the Superdome, where a makeshift hospital was set up.

“We had really mixed feeling because we felt bad for the people stuck in the Superdome – it was growing worse and worse. At the same time, none of us were willing to trade places with them. You were relieved to get out of there,” said Harris.

The next day the group was moved in the back of a fruit produce truck to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, where Mayor Nagin had set up his central command. By Friday, Sept. 2, the group made it onto one of the buses headed for Dallas, Texas. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the bus traveling in front of them suddenly overturned.

“Our bus driver was just a hero. He did a u-turn, came back and was rescuing people out of the top hatch of the bus,” Harris said. Finally, on Saturday, Sept. 3, Harris was able to catch a flight to San Diego.

“I would say [there was] three times during the ordeal where I thought I might die…” he he said. “I saw the best and the worst in humans. It also increased my anger toward this administration and FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency]. There were mistakes all along – locally, statewide, but especially [the] federal government.”

Harris remains disgusted with how the government and Bush administration handled the crisis, and added that there should have been more buses and more preparations on local, statewide and federal levels.

“Look at the Oklahoma City bombing, how quick the response was. Look at 9/11. Look at the earthquake in California. All three of those were much, much smaller things that had less advance notice and 10 times quicker response,” he said.

Harris suggested that if Hurricane Katrina had happened in a higher socioeconomic area, the government’s reaction time may have been quicker.

“While it may not be a conscious choice, it most positively would have been a better response if it happened in La Jolla,” Harris said.

Alexis De Bram is a French and Spanish interpreter who’s a dual resident of San Marcos and New Orleans. He owns and rents out two properties in a section of New Orleans called Algiers Point and Marigny Triangle.

De Bram was scheduled to return to New Orleans with his aunt on Tuesday, Aug. 30, but never made it home. Through some people in neighborhood associations he was able to find out that his properties were miraculously spared from flood damage.

“It was all very difficult to get any kind of news. It was just incredible that there was no communication,” said De Bram.

He has registered with the American Red Cross to become a volunteer and is awaiting an assignment upon his return to New Orleans on Oct. 1. When De Bram called his company to request time off to volunteer, they informed him he was being laid off.

“The job that I have had for 16 years has ended at the worst possible time that it could possibly end. I’m finding myself really juggling all these different major events. It’s not been easy at all,” he said.

Still, De Bram remains positive. All of his tenants who had lived in his properties have been accounted for but will not return for a minimum of six months. Government and FEMA workers have expressed interest in renting his properties.

“It really hurts to see all of these people who have very little to start with have even less. They’ve been displaced. They’ve lost their family members,” said De Bram. “They’re living under these conditions in the gigantic shelters and things are getting better day by day, but anything I can do with the Red Cross and all these other associations, I want to be able to do that.”

Sean Bohac, who lives in Hillcrest, decided to volunteer after he responded to an e-mail seeking experienced GIS (Geographical Information Systems) professionals. The volunteer efforts were organized through URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) GIS Corps, which was developed to share GIS expertise with developing nations and had helped in the tsunami disaster last year.

Bohac left on Sept. 4 and returned on Sept. 11. He spent three days at the State Emergency Operations Center in Jackson, Miss., and then spent four days at Stennis Airport at the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center, located 12 miles from the coast. Bohac said he was so busy working that it took a while for the sheer shock of Katrina’s power to set in.

“Perhaps the moment when I made a map showing the locations of 6,000 missing persons, I was a little stunned. Each missing person was represented by an X; the coastal area looked like fur on a cat veiled in Xs,” said Bohac.

Bohac made ad hoc maps of damaged areas, keeping track of and mapping emergency facilities, working with a missing persons database to locate last known positions, and making field maps for crews with aerial photography.