More than 1 million residents along the Southeast U.S. coast have been ordered to flee from the potential path of Hurricane Dorian – and some travel companies are trying to make it easier for those who need a place to go or a way to get there.
Officials have ordered mandatory evacuations of coastal areas in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina as the large, slow-moving storm looms. Now Category 2, Dorian was forecast to move north of Grand Bahama Island on Tuesday night after battering the Bahamas for days.
“The hurricane will then move dangerously close to the east coast of Florida late today through Wednesday evening, very near the Georgia and South Carolina coasts Wednesday night and Thursday, and near or over the North Carolina coast late Thursday and Thursday night,” according to a National Hurricane Center forecast.
Over the weekend, Airbnb activated its Open Homes program for the Southeast United States, which allows hosts to offer free housing away from the coast for people who are being told to leave or relief workers who are responding to the disaster. The program is active through Sept. 16. According to the home-sharing company, more than 1,300 hosts in seven states – Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia – are listing free lodging on the site.
So far, according to Airbnb’s global head of disaster response and relief, Kellie Bentz, more than 1,300 guests have been booked. And the company is looking for more hosts who can volunteer.
“We would love anyone to sign up to host their neighbors,” she said on a media call Tuesday. Airbnb is waiving its own fees for those listings but is not offering hosts an incentive to offer their rooms or homes.
“They literally just want to do this for free,” Bentz says.
Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway are offering storm evacuees use of their campgrounds at no charge, along with access to showers and restrooms. The Atlanta facility also has spaces with water, power and sewer hookups for recreational vehicles for $20 a night.
For those who need to get to an emergency shelter but don’t have transportation, ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft started offering discount codes to use toward the ride on Sunday. Lyft is offering $15 worth of credit each for two rides between now and Sept. 15 to dozens of shelters in Florida and South Carolina with the code DORIANRELIEF. Uber’s credit is a maximum of $20 each way to a state-approved shelter in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, also with the code DORIANRELIEF.
Lyft spokeswoman Kaitlyn Carl said the code has been applied more than 300 times so far. Both companies said drivers would not lose out on any pay.
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