American Red Cross Finds Unusual Amount of Unused Motel Rooms During Wildfires
Red Cross working to remedy problem and will restore funds to San Diego area
| Washington, DC 20006 www.redcross.org | Contact: Laura Howe Washington, DC Telephone: (202) 303-5551
FOR MEDIA ONLY |
Washington DC, March 20, 2008 – Despite an overall successful relief operation, the Red Cross has determined that it paid for 6,074 motel room nights which went unused during the response to last October’s wildfires, and the organization pledged to refund that money to the community’s wildfire recovery program. The number of unused rooms was approximately 22% of the 27,714 room nights booked during the wildfires. The rooms, which were reserved as quickly as possible to house disaster workers, were booked at several motels in the San Diego area. The Red Cross believes the value of those room nights to be approximately $688,000. Red Cross officials continue to work with motels in the area to reduce the cost of this error and would like to express their appreciation for the positive response from the San Diego lodging industry.
With more than a dozen fires burning out-of-control over a wide geography and with hundreds of thousands of people evacuated, the Red Cross made every effort in the first days of the disaster to send adequate resources and volunteers to southern California. Part of that preparation meant acquiring space to house disaster workers. As the scope of the response over the next days proved smaller than first anticipated, the Red Cross quickly reduced the number of disaster workers deployed.
“Wildfires are often the most unpredictable of all disaster events, making it difficult to gauge just how many volunteers and supplies will be needed in a certain area,” said Joe Becker, senior vice president, disaster services. “Unlike most disaster operations, the process used to secure housing for disaster workers, which attempts to balance the number of motel room against the number of disaster workers arriving on scene, did not work. This resulted in room reservations in excess of what were used and, subsequently, weren’t cancelled in a timely fashion.”
To ensure that San Diegans do not suffer any reduction in the relief resources donors provided, Red Cross national headquarters will refund the full amount to the people of Southern California by placing those funds in the operating budget for the community’s wildfire recovery program.
“It was our mistake, we regret it, and we will cut expenses at national headquarters to make up the cost of that error and take steps to ensure it never happens again,” said Becker. “We know this is the right thing to do for San Diegans and all those affected by the wildfires. We are confident this refund will not affect our ability to respond to future disasters.”
Upon learning of the issue, Red Cross disaster officials conducted interviews with national headquarters staff, disaster workers assigned to the San Diego operation, and personnel from Corporate Lodging Consultants (CLC), the vendor that acquired the rooms for the Red Cross. While there were several contributing factors, two main causes emerged:
· Many disaster workers arrived before the computer systems and operational headquarters were established. Workers assigning motel rooms couldn’t adequately assess the changing scope of the disaster. Without access to electronic motel lists, travel itineraries, and arrival rosters they simply could not tell how many rooms were going unused.
· CLC had access to an unusually large number of rooms. In a typical disaster of this size, only 40-45 motels would be in use. In this case the motel vendor was contacted by a number of motels offering rooms and ended up booking rooms at 74 properties, which proved difficult to manage for the disaster team on the ground, particularly in the absence of computers and email.
The Red Cross is committed to ensuring that a motel issue of this magnitude never occurs again. Going forward, the Red Cross is putting several safeguards in place to ensure that this does not happen on future disaster relief operations.
· Red Cross disaster leaders have renegotiated the contract with the motel vendor ensuring that:
o A CLC employee is on the ground to help Red Cross workers during major disasters
o Invoices are better configured to show unused nights more clearly
o CLC contacts Red Cross national headquarters directly if rooms go unoccupied after 48 hours
· Staff shelters will be used more frequently in the first days of a response to house workers if computer systems and operations headquarters are not established in the affected area.
· Revisions are being made to staff training to provide disaster workers with better instruction about identifying unused rooms and handling motel bookings and cancellations. Those updated disaster trainings begin next month.
The Red Cross is proud of its overall response to the Southern California wildfires. Disaster workers, most of them volunteers, provided the people of the San Diego area with more than 266,000 meals, 16,000 overnight shelter stays and thousands of clean-up kits and comfort items. In addition, more than 19,000 people took the opportunity to receive mental health support and more than 1,900 individuals and families received individual assistance from a Red Cross case manager.
About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and counsels the victims of disasters; collects and distributes nearly half of the nation's blood supply; teaches lifesaving skills; and supports military members and families. The American Red Cross is a charity, not a government agency, and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its humanitarian mission.
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Learn more about the 2007 San Diego Wildfires response