When hurricane Maria hit southeastern Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, 2017, the island was still recovering from the onslaught of hurricane Irma. Maria razed Puerto Rico’s already-broken infrastructure and triggered the biggest electrical blackout in US history. As of January 2018, nearly 40 percent of Puerto Rican electricity customers were still without power.
The destruction of the storm, which cost $90 billion in total, pushed hundreds of thousands to leave Puerto Rico for the mainland. Many Puerto Rican migrants criticized what they saw as a recklessly slow recovery response from the government. Five days passed after Maria hit before President Trump sent officials to the island and suspended the Jones Act, which was restricting aid deliveries to Puerto Rico.
