Apple Repairing Hurricane Harvey Affected iPads, iPhones For Free, Report Says

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has estimated that the damages caused by Hurricane Harvey could cost up to $180 billion. While the state may take some time to recover from the hurricane that has affected tens of thousands of lives, it seems Apple is doing its bit to help the people in affected areas. The tech giant is reportedly providing free repairs for iPhones damaged by water in these areas.

It is also offering free repairs for handsets affected during the evacuation, according to reports. These damages are not covered under warranty usually. While the company has not issued any official communication regarding this, tech news website 9to5Mac reported Monday that repairs are being done on a case-to-case basis.

What is unusual is that Apple is not using such efforts for public relations, but instead doing them silently. The reason behind this might be that the company only wants to help hurricanaffectedtd customers and doesn't want everyone with a damaged iPhone to turn up at its stores.

Apart from Apple, carriers such as T-Mobile and Sprint are also offering free service in hurricane-affected areas. Apple has also donated $2 million to relief efforts, apart from encouraging donations on iTunes.

Official repairs for Apple products are generally expensive even for the most basic issues, and when it comes to impact damage, they are not even repaired at Apple’s outlets and users are basically left with the choice to either go in for a new handset or rely on third-party spare parts and repair, which can be dangerous. Such damage is not even covered in most smartphone insurance policies.

Abbott told BBC the destruction caused by Harvey might be worse than the one caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. “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,” he said. The death toll due to Harvey has climbed to 47, according to reports, it has forced about 43,000 people to evacuate their homes.

Apart from Apple, Google has promised to match $1 million donations toward relief efforts. At the time of publishing this story, an amount worth $140,917 had been reached in donations. The company has also added Texas-specific SOS alerts in Google Maps.

Meanwhile, Facebook has pledged to contribute $1 million to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, while Lyft has donated $100,000 to the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. Amazon has pledged to donate $1 million to America Red Cross, while Microsoft has made a $100,000 to Red Cross.

Airbnb has opened up its platform to those displaced by Hurricane Harvey and is also pairing the hurricane-affected with the hosts providing free lodging.

Also, Uber is offering free rides in hurricane-affected areas. However, the relief efforts may get disrupted as Hurricane Irma is expected to hit South Florida next week. It has been categorized as a Category 4 storm and might cause landslides and flash floods.