Leia Riley is the assistant General Manager at the Midland Best Western Valley Plaza Inn. On Wednesday afternoon she watched a man soaked past his waist enter the front lobby. He had just gone to check on his house, what was left of it.
With thousands of people seeking a place to stay in the wake of the Midland floods, hotels are reopening despite the coronavirus threat. With the help of the American Red Cross, many were open within hours of the emergency beginning Tuesday evening.
Riley said she and her staff at the Best Western were trying to go above and beyond to make sure families were not only housed, but fed
“We reached out to the Salvation Army; we were looking to help feed these people. Because, due to the Covid-19 we’re not serving continental breakfast, we just can’t, there are restrictions to that,” Riley said. “The salvation army responded very quickly, they had a canteen truck out here and they served all of them dinner.”
Bay County sister properties, the Travel and Budget Inns, remained open through the pandemic. The manager said the staff is taking extra measures to clean and sanitize rooms.
“(The staff) is really helpful,” she said. “It’s not just people from Midland, we’re taking people from Gladwin as well.
Hotels as far as Mount Pleasant reopened, including The Retreat at Soaring Eagle.
“We’ve offered the retreat to anyone who needs a place because of the flood. I don’t know if
anybody has taken advantage of that and if so, how many,” Spokesperson Frank Cloutier said. “We also offered up our gaming parking lot through the governor’s office for the National Guard to begin mobilization if necessary but obviously there was no need for that as well.”
“Go Great Lakes Bay” launched a list of available hotels in the area surrounding the Tittabawassee River.