Mass Exodus From Puerto Rico Feared After Hurricane and Debt Crisis
Source: NBC News
CAROLINA, Puerto Rico Inside the steamy San Juan airport, mothers sleep on the floor with their children. Travelers, many of whom have been there for days, fan themselves as they wait for a flight out.
The lines are long and there is no air conditioning, but after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans are eager to just get out and the island's governor fears many will not return.
"My expectation is to rebuild stronger than ever," Gov. Ricardo Rossello told NBC News. "But clearly if this is not taken seriously ... Puerto Rico is going to collapse into a humanitarian crisis."
Saddled with a ballooning debt crisis, Puerto Rico has already seen a historic migration of about half a million people from the island in the past 10 years. Now, following the most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. territory in decades, the outflow is sure to hasten.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mass-exodus-puerto-rico-feared-after-historic-hurricane-debt-crisis-n804856
It will be interesting how Trump and the rest of the Republican racist right deal with U.S. citizen refugees given how their MO is demonize such folks.
Jarqui
(10,126 posts)We got parts of Harvey, Irma, Jose & Maria (cat 3 was the worst we got).
Places like Dominica, Barbuda, US & British Virgin Islands, Cuba, St Martin are also in deep trouble
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/26/16367410/hurricane-maria-2017-puerto-rico-caribbean-barbuda-dominica-virgin-islands-cuba-st-martin
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/09/23/now-and-then-satellite-photos-show-marias-ravaging-dominica/696523001/
One of our friends in Dominica lost everything including a daughter. the washroom they were in was the only thing left of their home. We got her and her son to Martinique and we haven't heard anything ... The airlines wanted $10,000 to fly them to France .... and their bank in Dominca is wiped out.
Three different pockets of people in BVI - I haven't heard a peep from any of them since before Irma. I've heard staff of some offices there have left the country because there is little chance anything will be up and running any time soon. They do not have the financial resources to recover.
The culture down here is when these storms are coming, people stock up, gas up and board up. But the affordable housing structures are too often not designed to withstand cat 5 winds. They had no chance.
tclambert
(11,087 posts)(Hint: They're already "in" since they are American citizens. No extreme vetting of immigrants applies, because they are not immigrants. But I bet they have to explain that to Donald at least five times.)
James48
(4,436 posts)But they speak SPANISH- Not American!
What do you mean I can't just write an Executive Order and keep them out?
(Sarcasm)
Yupster
(14,308 posts)every year for a while now.
The bankrupt economy has made it speed up. This will make it speed up even more.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)I wonder who benefits from that?