Post-social media claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) paid for hotel rooms in Texas during the deadly winter storm and provided a phone number for the service. FEMA posted a statement on their social media channels confirming that it was a scam.
The posts (here, here, here, here), which have been shared more than 15,000 times, say, “FEMA PAYS FOR HOTEL ROOMS !!! Call Texas 1-800-745-0243. Forward.”
A historic winter storm in Texas that began on February 11 killed at least 21 people, leaving nearly half of all Texans with disrupted water services and leading to eclipses in millions of homes (here).
On February 14, President Biden declared a state of emergency in Texas to authorize FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief and provide assistance for the necessary emergency measures (here, here).
On February 18, FEMA posted a statement on their official social media sites here and here and saying that the messages on social media are a scam: ‘A fake phone number is being shared with a message about FEMA paying hotels for Texas Disaster Relief. This is a scam. The best information about legal resources in your area comes from local officials and the Texas Division of Emergency Management. ”
FEMA supports Texas with generators and fuel to support critical areas such as hospitals and water facilities; 729,000 liters of water; and more than 50,000 cotton blankets (here , here).
The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) also posted visibly about the scam on their official social media channels here : “Watch out for social media posts encouraging you to call an 800 number for FEMA hotel fees.” The TDEM has released a list of “warm-up stations” in places like activity centers, churches, and schools, available in Texas for those without power or who need heat, see tdem.texas.gov/warming-center/.
The number shared in the social media messages (1-800-745-0243) is the FEMA contact number for technical assistance with the DisasterAssistance.gov website, including problems accessing your account, lost or forgotten user ID, password or PIN, errors and other website related issues (here, www.fema.gov/about/contact).
The numbers for the FEMA disaster helpline are 1-800-621-3362 and 1-800-462-7585 (www.fema.gov/about/contact), which are not the same as the number on social media. placements.
Reuters recently dropped several other claims related to the Texas winter storm (here, here, here, here).
VERDICT
Untrue. FEMA posted a statement on their official social media pages saying that posts offering FEMA compensation for hotel rooms are a scam. The telephone number in the posts is a FEMA technical assistance contact number on the DisasterAssistance.gov website, not the disaster survivors helpline.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.