We are the Media!

Please spread this, my grassroots media queens! We are Direct Relief! We can call and say that we are media, and ask for information, and they will put out.

Anyone who is from the disaster-affected zipcodes can get their hotel bills paid directly by the Red Cross. This is a joint effort between the Red Cross, FEMA, and a company called Corporate Lodging. They'll pay your hotel bill for 14-28 days. Here is the information from Corporate Lodging; you will need it to give to the hotel. I was told by the Red Cross media contact that this company has 90% of the hospitality industry participating.

How to use the Red Cross free hotel room program:

- are you from one of the affected zip codes?
- call a hotel and find out if they are willing to participate; tell them the web site for the ARC program, which has all the info on how the hotel can bill the Red Cross directly
- make sure you have *something* that says what your zip code is. I don't know if you need an ID. I'll call corp. lodging tomorrow and check. But, it's best to check with the individual hotel anyway.
- make your room reservation
- figure out how to get there!

The program was already in place nationwide, to help families whose homes were destroyed by fire. the Red Cross committed the money for expanding, and it sounds like Corporate Lodging scaled it up very quickly to respond to the disaster. Around 60,000 families are already in ARC-sponsored hotel rooms.

If you have already been staying in a hotel, you can submit your receipts to the Red Cross to your local chapter, and they will reimburse you.

I feel a little bit bad for just claiming to be "Media" to Renita Hosler, who kindly spoke to me and answered all my questions. I'll write a longer article tomorrow on the situation and the Red Cross response. I do know that I will blog this info in many different places and it will spread very quickly to people who are reading blogs only, and are not seeing newspapers. It will go straight to the people that need the help in some cases. Renita, thank you very much for your useful information. I will also pass it on right away to some Real Mainstream Media People (TM). You have singlehandedly made me love the Red Cross again.

I am also going to be calling back all the people I am helping as a relief worker, to let them know exactly what they can do. Some of them are living 10, 12 people in a small apartment, whole extended families, and they're all in shock, all traumatized. Or they've been in a motel for the last week, many people in one room, in growing panic over how their money is disappearing.

Even MORE direct financial help is available through this RC hotline :

Families in need can access this program by calling 1-800-975-7585 beginning at 9:00 a.m. EST Sunday. To apply for aid, victims calling in must be ready to provide their name, pre-storm address, ZIP code and home telephone number to call center agents. Callers must be prepared to write down a client identification number which they will take to a financial institution in their new community to receive the support. Families in need can access this program by calling 1-800-975-7585 beginning at 9:00 a.m. EST Sunday. To apply for aid, victims calling in must be ready to provide their name, pre-storm address, ZIP code and home telephone number to call center agents. Callers must be prepared to write down a client identification number which they will take to a financial institution in their new community to receive the support.

You guys have heard me ranting my rants about my difficulties working with the RC all week in the Astrodome. That was kind of on the micro level. This is the big-scale level, where the massive machinery of large, sluggish bureaucracies with tons of money really shows its muscle and power! And it is being done with the highest ethical standards and minimum of red tape. (Unlike SOME people around here whom we shall not name but whose name starts with F, ends with A, and has an EM in the middle. I'm sure they'll throw in some money at the last second and claim all the credit - those bozos.)

Thanks, Red Cross!

I bet you never thought you'd hear me say that. And it's thanks to Renita in Media Relations, who kindly answered the phone late at night from her car and talked to me even though she could tell I was "just a blogger". I was NOT finding any info on their web site. Since we have spoken, there is a new press release on the hotel billing program on the RC site.

Comments

[whump]

Sweet. I passed the hotel info to my brother. There are a few hundred evacuees living in hotels along the Interstate in Rockwall, and members of his church have been bringing them hot meals.

[badgerbag]

aw yeah. get your brother to print/xerox all that info to post but also to hand out directly to people!!! print the press release, a nd the corp. lodging site, and maybe the list of zip codes. there should be a "how to use the rc hotel program" flyer with all of that info neatly on 2 pages if possible.

[Bre]

Hi I run a site called We Are The Media and found you in a google search. Righteous!