Puerto Rico on Her Mind: How to Help a Stricken Island Called Home<br />25 miles Atlantic Ocean San Juan Luquillo Culebra Puerto Rico El Yunque National Forest Boquerón Vieques Caribbean<br />Sea St. Thomas Atlantic Ocean puerto rico St. John BARBUDA ANTIGUA Caribbean Sea 100 miles NOV. 3, 2017<br />A similar effort is underway in the United States Virgin Islands, another American territory in the Caribbean whose three islands — St. Thomas, St. John<br />and St. Croix — suffered modest to crippling losses from the one-two punch of Hurricanes Maria and Irma within a two-week span.<br />But tourism officials in the American Caribbean acknowledged<br />that Irma, which made landfall in the Virgin Islands on Sept. 6 as a Category 5 hurricane, and Maria, which hit Puerto Rico barely short of that magnitude as a Category 4, were like no other hurricanes in recent history because of their power and overwhelming reach.<br />Both governors in the American Caribbean — Puerto Rico with a population of 3.4 million, and the United States Virgin Islands, with about 110,000 residents — have optimistically said<br />that nearly all power should be back by Christmas because of a ramp-up in restoration work.<br />Richards said that Given the level of devastation in Puerto Rico,<br />But while cruise ship traffic has been rebounding, top hotels in Puerto Rico like El San Juan Hotel and Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, shut down because of damages and many of those<br />that remained open with the help of generators were housing workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other relief agencies.<br />"We also have family in Florida and we were going berserk with the hurricanes." Seasonal visitors to Puerto Rico — snowbirds, repeat tourists, those<br />who spend the Christmas holiday with family or friends — joined in the collective hand-wringing over the aftermath of this year’s powerful storms.
