Hundreds of thousands of homes have been left without power as Portugal has been battered by one of the strongest ever storms.

Airbnb has substantially expanded the activation zone for its Open Homes Program to aid residents of the Southeast forced to evacuate from their homes in connection with Hurricane Michael.

The tiny town of Mexico Beach, Florida took the brunt of Hurricane Michael, which made landfall nearby with winds at 155mph. Entire homes were destroyed by driving winds, while others were completely submerged by water.

Hurricane Michael, barreling toward Florida with winds as high as 110 mph, is threatening homes on the state's Gulf Coast worth as much as $13.4 billion, according to property analytics service CoreLogic. 

Tropical Storm Michael was almost a hurricane early Monday (Oct. 8) and is expected to reach Category 2 or stronger as it churns over the Gulf of Mexico in the next couple of days.

The National Hurricane Center said that Hurricane Rosa had intensified into a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 145 miles per hour.