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Hurricane Harvey: Airbnb offers free housing for evacuated residents

Rescuers battling torrential downpours continue to pull hundreds of people from rising floodwaters along the ravaged Texas coastline

Lucy Pasha-Robinson
Sunday 27 August 2017 15:23 BST
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Thousands of people have already been evacuated but rescuers battling heavy downpours continue to pull hundreds of people from rising floodwaters
Thousands of people have already been evacuated but rescuers battling heavy downpours continue to pull hundreds of people from rising floodwaters

Airbnb is enabling residents in Texas to offer free housing to those evacuating Hurricane Harvey.

The home-sharing site changed its rules to allow hosts to list residences across San Antonio, Austin and Dallas for free.

The company said it would in turn waive its service fees for people affected by the devastating storm that has ravaged the Gulf Coast.

Thousands of people have already been evacuated but rescuers battling torrential downpours continue to pull hundreds of people from rising floodwaters along the ravaged Texas coastline.

Along the coast, anywhere up to 300,000 people have no power, and few fuel stations are operating.

At least two people were killed and up to 14 injured when the Category 4 hurricane hit Corpus Christi on Friday with winds of up to 130 mph (209 kmh).

It was later downgraded to a Category 1 with sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kmh), the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Up to to 40 inches (102 cm) of rainfall is expected to arrive in the coming days in some areas on the south-east coast.

The US National Weather service warned the cyclone - the fiercest in the US for more than a decade - will bring “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” to parts of Texas over the next few days.

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