Various reports have started pouring in suggesting that Apple is voluntarily offering free repairs to all those devices affected with water or impact damage while evacuating the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
It must be noted that the iPhone maker does not normally cover such accidental damages under factory warranty or amend its company-wide policy in the wake of natural disasters. However, Apple seems to be volunteering to help in a social cause as it is addressing the damage to Apple products on a case-by-case basis with assistance from the local retail stores.
According to BBC quoting Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey could be far worse than that of Katrina in 2005 in New Orleans.
Here are the excerpts of the quote from Abbott:
"Katrina caused, if I recall, more than $120bn [of damage] but when you look at the number of homes and business affected by this I think this will cost well over $120bn, probably $150bn to $180bn."
Hurricane Harvey has reportedly caused at least 47 deaths with around 43,000 people being forcibly evacuated, after their homes got submerged in flooded water.
Several victims from the flood-hit areas have been offered new shelters, using emergency relief funds with contributions coming in from Apple and the local government. Apple has apparently donated $2M to relief efforts while local cellular carriers are offering free service to support rescue operations in affected areas.
Meanwhile, there has been some disagreement between the state and federal governments over the funding strategy for covering the damage. Governor Abbott has expressed his concern over the denial of responsibility from the head of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Brock Long as he has alleged that the state government is fully responsible for the funding of rescue and relief operations.
Here are the excerpts of the quote from Long as reported by CNET:
"It is a wake-up call for this country for local and state elected officials to give their governors and their emergency management directors the full budgets that they need to be fully staffed, to design rainy-day funds, to have your own stand-alone individual assistance and public assistance programmes."
