By: Kaitwan Jackson

About 1 week after the devastation caused in the Caribbean by Hurricane Irma, the Caribbean is now facing the threat of Hurricane Maria.  Maria has already affected island nations including and surrounding the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Maria had a devastating impact on the small island of Dominica. Dominica's Prime Minister described the damage as "mind-boggling", and expressed concerns about who the island will rebuild.

Maria has made landfall in Puerto Rico as a category 4 hurricane. In Puerto Rico, Maria’s winds are now ranging from 140 to 155 mph, strong enough to topple structures.

Hurricane Maria will be the first storm of this magnitude to afflict Puerto Rico in about 90 years.  The 1928 Okeechobee/ San Felipe II Hurricane marks the first recorded category 5 hurricane to make landfall on the island. Okeechobee struck with winds reaching about 160 mph; strong enough to pull a home from its foundation and leave no remains behind. Okeechobee led to:

·      1,000 deaths in Puerto Rico

·      About 1/3 of the population was left homeless

·      Left over 50 million dollars’ worth of damage

Maria can be equated to “being kicked when you’re already down.” Many of the same island nations struck by Irma are planned to be affected by Maria. These nations have already experienced immense damage to their infrastructure, landscape, and population size. Currently the safety shelters of Puerto Rico are full of those displaced by Irma, and Maria has led to more individuals heading to these same shelters. With Puerto Rico running low on food, water, and fuel, it is safe to assume international aid will be needed.

Following Maria, the landscape of Puerto Rico will have major situations to handle. Irma has already destroyed about 30% of crops in Puerto Rico, a 30-million-dollar loss. Most of these crops being plantains and coffee; both crops contribute to more than half of the countries source of income. Maria’s destruction of the agriculture section poses major issues in terms of Puerto Rico’s ability to properly reinstate economic activity once the storm passes. With

In May of this year, Puerto Rico accepted a deal to resolve their debt. In order to have their debt relieved, the island agreed to adhere to guided instructions toward economic reform. 4 months later, and the same infrastructure needed to invoke this economic change is now being destroyed; halting their plans to build their economic stability.

As an US territory, the US government will use relief funds to aid Puerto Rico in its period of rebuilding. However, after Hurricane Irma and Harvey one can wonder how much will the federal government be able to provide to Puerto Rico. Harvey’s relief package reached $15.25 billion, and these funds may not be enough to cover all damage that occurred during the storm. But for Irma and Maria, it is projected that more will be needed than $15 billion. Rest assure the relief money will be allocated to Florida and Puerto Rico, especially considering Florida is a relatively conservative state, and Republicans hold the majority in Congress.

As Hurricane Maria advances out of Puerto Rico, she is expected to sustain her power for about 5 days. But what occurs within these 5 days is somewhat a mystery. Although current projections show the storm passing by the US mainland, this could all change. If Maria hits the US mainland it could potentially cause further damage to Florida and/or other states along the coast.

As rebuilding begins, there will be expected debates in Congress over what the relief packages will entail. Many are in favor of including non-emergent funding that will allow for the building of infrastructure to avoid significant damage from future storms. Others in Congress simply want to fund emergency efforts, and handle everything else afterward. In the coming weeks President Trump is expected to visit both Florida and Puerto Rico, and we can only hope he sticks to the teleprompter and focuses on the issue at hand.