<br><div><aside class="gnt_em gnt_em__fp gnt_em_vp__tp gnt_em__el" aria-label="Video - Hurricane Fiona makes landfall in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, islands lose power"/><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">Five years after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island is dealing <a target="_blank" href="/story/news/world/2022/09/19/hurricane-fiona-puerto-rico-damage-photos/10430023002/" rel="noopener" data-t-l=":b|e|inline click|${u}" class="gnt_ar_b_a">with the damage</a> of yet <a target="_blank" href="/story/news/nation/2022/09/19/hurricane-fiona-puerto-rico-dominican-republic-updates/10424046002/" rel="noopener" data-t-l=":b|e|inline click|${u}" class="gnt_ar_b_a">another destructive storm</a>. </p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">Hurricane Fiona struck the U.S. territory Monday, <a target="_blank" href="/story/news/nation/2022/09/20/puerto-rico-hurricane-fiona-maria/10435384002/" rel="noopener" data-t-l=":b|e|inline click|${u}" class="gnt_ar_b_a">killing four</a>, triggering mudslides and crushing bridges while displacing more than a thousand and leaving more than a million residents without power.</p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">Some wonder whether the storm will prompt the kind of exodus seen after Hurricane Maria. In the wake of that hurricane, more than 123,000 Puerto Ricans permanently relocated to U.S. states, especially New York and Florida, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/08/estimating-puerto-rico-population-after-hurricane-maria.html" rel="noopener" data-t-l=":b|e|inline click|${u}" class="gnt_ar_b_a">U.S. Census Bureau estimates</a>.</p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">And according to a new USA Today analysis of 2020 Census results, every single <em>municipio</em>—Puerto Rico’s equivalent of a county—lost population after Maria compared to the 2010 Census.</p><h2 class="gnt_ar_b_h2">Why do Puerto Ricans leave the island?</h2><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">The island’s numbers actually have been in decline ever since the U.S. territory reached its peak population in 2004, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/26/puerto-rico-population-2018/" rel="noopener" data-t-l=":b|e|inline click|${u}" class="gnt_ar_b_a">according to</a> a Pew Research Center study, falling to about 3.2 million by 2018. Economic conditions there – notably a mid-2000s recession whose effects still linger – have been driving people off the island long before Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck in September 2017.</p><figure class="gnt_em gnt_em_img"><img class="gnt_em_img_i" style="height:373px" data-g-r="lazy" src="https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9e7c14ccdadd1cb3ce06bffc1f840fea5a4c7a16/c=0-387-5609-3556/local/-/media/2015/06/30/USATODAY/USATODAY/635712732559872989-AP-Puerto-Rico-Economy.jpg?width=660&height=373&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp" srcset="https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9e7c14ccdadd1cb3ce06bffc1f840fea5a4c7a16/c=0-387-5609-3556/local/-/media/2015/06/30/USATODAY/USATODAY/635712732559872989-AP-Puerto-Rico-Economy.jpg?width=1320&height=746&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp 2x" decoding="async" alt="A woman walked past a shuttered bank in the Rio Piedras neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico in June 2015. The bills on the closed bank doors read in Spanish "No to the value added tax. Let the rich pay for the crisis.""/></figure><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">Some have left more recently, frustrated by what they see as the local government’s ongoing failure to deal with the aftermath.</p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p">Marla Perez-Lugo, born in Santurce and raised in Mayaguez, left Puerto Rico last year. Once co-director of Puerto Rico’s National Institute for...</p></div> <style> .wrapper { text-align: center; } </style> <div class="wrapper"> <a class="button" href ="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/09/25/puerto-ricans-leaving-island-after-hurricane-fiona/8076767001/">Read more <span>➤</span></a> </div>
