Apple pledges $1M to Red Cross as Hurricane Florence makes landfall

Apple will be donating $1 million to the American Red Cross to cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, which is still pounding the U.S. east coast.

"The Carolinas are in our hearts," CEO Tim Cook said on Twitter in announcing the donation. "To our employees there, first responders and everyone in Hurricane Florence's path, please stay safe."

The storm hit the coast in earnest around 7:15 Eastern time on Friday after having sat off the coast for an extended period of time. Initially rated a Category 4, it has since degraded to Category 1, but it's expected to assault the Carolinas with rain and surge for at least another 24 hours, and has already forced over 26,000 people into shelters. Many homes are underwater, and winds may be reaching up to 85 miles per hour or more.

The American Red Cross is Apple's most common charity of choice outside of (Red). In August, for instance, it opened up iTunes donations to the organization for California's wildfires. In fact the company has done the same for past hurricanes, such as last year's Harvey.

It has sometimes drawn criticism for favoring the Red Cross, and also for donating relatively small amounts to charity relative to its revenue. The company generates billions in profits every quarter, yet in 2017 it said that the year's sales of (Product)Red goods — including special editions of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus — had only contributed somewhere over $30 million to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

16 Comments

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

About 6 years ago

They’re donating to an American cause for once. That’s a nice gesture.

ascii 5930 comments · 19 Years

There needs to be some sort of technology where you can set off an explosion in the middle of a hurricane (when it is out to sea), to disrupt the air flow and dissipate it before it makes landfall.

ascii said:

There needs to be some sort of technology where you can set off an explosion in the middle of a hurricane (when it is out to sea), to disrupt the air flow and dissipate it before it makes landfall.

I suppose a nuclear bomb would do it, but then you've got radiation spreading throughout the world.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

Apple is being excoriated over this donation on Apple hating site MacRumors. The haters are calling it a PR disaster and that $1 million is a pitiful response by Apple. Haters have literally taken over the site to trash Apple on every single thing they do. How do these idiots keep it up for so long?

boltsfan17 2294 comments · 12 Years

lkrupp said:

Apple is being excoriated over this donation on Apple hating site MacRumors. The haters are calling it a PR disaster and that $1 million is a pitiful response by Apple. Haters have literally taken over the site to trash Apple on every single thing they do. How do these idiots keep it up for so long?

I was reading the comments on MacRumors after the iPhone announcement. Pretty much everyone was bashing Apple and saying there is nothing new with the phone.