spark360 Behind The Scenes: OneStopRentals.com

You hope that everybody likes to focus on the positive things in life, so as a storyteller, you yearn for those times when you can talk about something good coming out of a bad situation. That’s why it’s refreshing to focus on the solutions provided by OneStopRentals.com, a company that was brought to life by the devastation to homes and apartments caused by Hurricane Rita’s Category 3 winds in September 2005.

This story is particularly relevant for me in another way: I was anchoring at CNN Headline News on the Saturday that Rita made landfall along the Texas/Louisiana border. My co-anchor and I were tracking the storm’s progress, conducting live interviews via phone with CNN reporters, public safety officials and residents near the storm’s path. I may have been safe in a cozy studio in Atlanta, but my heart and prayers were with the people I knew back in my home state of Texas, particularly those who lived in and around Houston.

I remember talking to people on the air, and seeing some of the first video to come in from CNN crews and local affiliates of the buildings that had been affected by 100 mph-plus winds and the storm surges. Like Katrina and many other storms you’ve seen covered on TV newscasts, there were roofs of houses barely peeking above muddy floodwaters and sections of large trees sticking out of what used to be someone’s den or living room.

And like a lot of newscasters who work stories like that, either as reporters or anchors, you hope to keep the human element in perspective while also juggling lots of information coming in at you at once. Those were real people affected by Rita: what happened to those who got out alive but lost their homes? Did they rebuild? Did they give up?

Our spark360 story offers a partial answer. Many who evacuated southeast Texas and came back needed a place to live, a rented roof over their heads, while they contemplated the rebuilding process. OneStopRentals.com CEO David Schaper had rental properties available but noticed that here we were, deep into the Information Age, and there didn’t seem to be an easy way to hook up renters and property owners – especially in the smaller towns and communities in Rita’s path. Hence the need for an online apartment and home locator service like OneStopRentals.com. The focus at that time was on information for Texas property rentals like apartments, and – probably for displaced families – rental homes in Texas, but OneStopRentals.com is available in other states.

It’s a business story, sure. But as I said, it’s also a solution to a problem, a process that gives birth to many a start-up company that goes on to success in the U.S. economy.  That’s a good thing too, along with providing information on affordable shelter – no matter whether there’s a storm raging outside or not.

- Renay San Miguel