Extreme flooding during Hurricane Maria in 2017 was hazardous for the Puerto Rican people. But a new study finds that it helped native fish populations rebound after years of drought.
AP Photo/Alvin Baez
Big storms with lots of flooding, like hurricanes Dorian and Maria, actually restore the Caribbean’s delicate balance between native and nonnative fish species, new research finds.
People wave Puerto Rican flags as they attend a rally to celebrate the resignation of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 25.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
Rosselló’s corruption is just the latest in a string of disasters for Puerto Ricans – but it also created an opportunity for a stressed community to come together.
Three-year-old Ailianie Hernandez waits with her mother, Julianna Ageljo, to apply for Puerto Rico’s nutritional assistance program.
(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti
It’s been one year since a Category 4 storm turned Puerto Rico into a disaster zone. Today, nearly every pillar of society — including the economy, health care and schools — remains hobbled.
President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in October 2017 following Hurricane Maria. Trump congratulated Puerto Rico for escaping the higher death toll of “a real catastrophe like Katrina.” A new study suggests almost 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
As Trump fumes about the Hurricane Maria death toll, it’s clear that politics and political considerations often play an important role in how death toll estimates are communicated to the public.
Buildings damaged by Hurricane Maria are seen in Lares, Puerto Rico, October 2017.
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
While the hurricanes last year dealt devastating blows to Puerto Rico, its challenges predate the storms and continue on today. They also offer new opportunities.
Nearly a year after Hurricane Maria, water is still not restored to all of Puerto Rico.
Reuters/Alvin Baez
Cecilia A. Green, Syracuse University e Farah Nibbs, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Many countries collect and store rainwater for use during drought or dry seasons. But this technique is rarely used in the Caribbean, where hurricanes can leave people without water for months.
Shoes are displayed at the San Juan Capitol in June 2018 to pay tribute to Hurricane Maria’s victims.
REUTERS/Alvin Baez
A survey shows that most Puerto Ricans didn’t highly rate the official information coming out of the island. With the Institute of Statistics in trouble, the situation is likely not to improve.
Corruption has made hurricane Caribbean countries’ recovery less efficient and more expensive, new research shows. Misuse of funds may also trigger more disaster-related deaths.
The Caribbean braces for another hurricane season even as many nations remain crippled by the catastrophic damage of 2017. Here, experts assess the region’s difficult and costly storm recovery.
Hurricane Maria’s destruction likely have led to thousands more deaths than originally estimated.
Ramon Espinosa/AP
Official reports state that just 64 people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The latest estimates put the real number at 4,645. How did the count go so wrong?
Muslims praying in Puerto Rico.
AP Photo/Tomas van Houtryve
A scholar talks to Muslims in Puerto Rico and comes back with an understanding of their rich history and their struggles.
Rising seas, harsher weather, rainier days. The impacts of climate change make it harder for Caribbean countries to plan their transition toward renewable energy sources.
Ricardo Rojas/Reuters
Masaō Ashtine, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus
The 2017 hurricane season showed that Caribbean nations urgently need more resilient power grids. But the effects of climate change – including more severe storms – complicate the shift to renewables.
Some 17,000 U.S. troops aided in the Caribbean relief effort after hurricanes Irma and Maria. That’s roughly equivalent to the U.S. military’s humanitarian mission in the Philippines after Typhoon Hiyan in 2013.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Compared to its foreign disaster missions, the US military mobilized slowly after Maria. But in numbers, capacity and logistics coordination, its work in Puerto Rico was on par with other aid efforts.
Crypto billionaires enjoy their Caribbean playground but poorer locals with little knowledge of the tech are excluded.
Puerto Rico’s power utility, PREPA, has been decimated by years of scarcity and bad management. But will privatizing it really turn the lights back on for Puerto Ricans?
AP Photo/Carlos Giusti
Many Puerto Ricans are happy to see their broke power utility sold off to whoever can get the lights turned back on. But privatizing the island’s energy grid may bring more problems than relief.
Samuel Brownback appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, Religion and Civic Culture Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences