Hurricane Katrina: Guess Who's Coming ...

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Finally, they reached Yolanda's father's house in Port St. John, Fla., where they rested for a few days. But they were having trouble getting a wheelchair and other assistance for Yolanda's mother. Jan convinced Yolanda that their best bet was to return to Boston, where they had met and married before moving to Louisiana only two months before Katrina's landfall. "I've been a Bostonian all my life. They'll help us there," she said. Jan and Sonny, 5, went to Boston to look for options. Meanwhile, Yolanda signed up on openyourhome.com The next day, she got a call from King.

Suspicious about why a conservative retiree would want to play host to a lesbian couple and their family, Yolanda instructed Jan to poke around for clues. But, says Jan, "I felt at ease almost instantly." King and his wife Marie Hancock-King offered a tour of the house and pointed out where the Meehan-Hoo kids could sleep. "Marie asked how she should refer to us," says Jan. "She said, 'You gotta educate me.' I said, 'I call Yolanda my wife, and she calls me her wife.'"

The next day a California woman who learned about the family online donated frequent-flyer miles so that the rest of the family could fly to Boston. The local fire department brought an ambulance for Yolanda's mother, who has since been placed in a nursing home nearby. "The firemen were arguing over who got to volunteer," says King. A day later, the fire fighters came back with brand-new bunk beds for the kids.

The town of Attleboro has aggressively adopted the Meehan-Hoos. Locals have given them $600 in Old Navy gift cards and $60 in Borders certificates. A nearby inn has donated a romantic dinner for two for the couple. A coffee shop will deliver a pastry tray every week, "from now until whenever," according to Kim Allard, a city councilor who has helped arrange donations. "It's unbelievable," says Yolanda. "I told Jan, 'There's no way we can ever move out of this town.'"

Last Thursday evening the three Meehan-Hoo kids sat around the kitchen table and painted pictures of their house in Louisiana, which is now under three feet of water. Then the boys played video games with Marie's daughter Sabrina, while Taylor, 9, climbed the tree out front. The population in the Attleboro household has almost doubled. "This hectic situation has got to calm down," admits King. They plan to hold weekly family meetings and vent freely all the time. To Jan's relief, Marie has started to chastise the Meehan-Hoo kids. "She jumped in and said, 'Don't do that.' I was so glad. I felt like I didn't have to hold my breath," says Jan.

Howard, the woman who runs open your home.com recommends that people sign a written agreement before living together. She checks local records to verify that housing seekers are truly evacuees. "We've had a few people who weren't victims. They were just looking for housing," she says. The FBI, through local police departments, is temporarily offering free background checks to people with children considering a post-hurricane share.