I think it's probably better to ask people if they were affected rather than trying to guess based on their location. It's not something you can get really get away with lying about, since it just takes an interviewer asking "so, tell me how you were affected by the hurricane" to get someone blacklisted.

"I was glued to the Weather Network for like two days straight, and didn't get a chance to complete my application form."

Also, not all teams are located in one area.

yeah thats probably not a bad idea - allowing users to flag if their application is late due to storm and just accept it