@James165 While I disagree with many, many things about Airbnb's dealings with hosts, I just don't see how Airbnb could be expected to respond differently in the case of a natural emergency situation like a hurricane. I'm sure their phones were ringing off the hook with guests who wanted to cancel their travel to the area. It would be a logistical impossibility to have every guest send in verification of their travel route, then cross reference with which airports and highways are closed, then determine if any given host's physical location may be possibly affected (Oh, their house is at a high elevation, not near any waterways which could flood, should be okay.)
No one, even someone who has lived in an area all their lives and have experienced many false alarms, mass panic at media reports that ended up being a non-event, etc. and is confident that a major disaster won't affect their listing, can really predict "acts of God". Hurricanes and tornadoes can abruptly change course, rain can fall in massive amounts causing flooding, landslides, etc. Just because "It's never happened here before" doesn't mean it never will.
So essentially I'm agreeing with you that hosts should be able to have a streamlined process to cancel wthout penalty in such cases. But the other way around, which many hosts have suggested here- that Airbnb shouldn't automatically allow guests to cancel just because a host doesn't "think" their area will be affected by a major weather event, no.