I called last night the BP Hot Line for oil spill claims ( 1-800-440-0858). Got a call center and was told that I had to give them some information and then a claim adjuster would call me back. Information requested: Name, location of damages, amount of loss, social security number, date of birth, address and contact phone numbers. The person taking the call was courteous. She didn’t know about $5,000 checks being handed out on claims.
I wanted to find out about the checks that were mentioned at the Bayou La Batre community meeting. It was late—after 10:30 p.m.–but I figured BP had 24-hour hot-line for the media to handle such questions. I couldn’t find it anywhere so I called the BP America press office in Houston which sent me to an automated message directing me to the website, DeepwaterHorizonResponse.com, which is site for the Unified Command for the clean-up operation.
Since that didn’t work, I called Joe Oliveri of BP, who made the presentation to Gov. Crist and who is listed as the BP representative in the Site Specific Health and Safety Plan. He is also the one who had me booted from the Saturday meeting with DEP and county officials. Oliveri wasn’t happy to talk to me and directed me to another phone number, which I read back to him to be sure I had it right. No one answered at that number. This morning I called again and got someone who has not connection to BP or the spill.
I plan to be even more aggressive with BP today and try to find more specifics.
Here is a photo of BP’s reps surrounding Gov. Crist and DEP Sec. Sole at Saturday’s meeting (Oliveri is in white polo shirt):
