The active Atlantic hurricane season of 2017 has wrought unimaginable destruction. With barely enough time for the U.S. to recover from the shock of Hurricane Harvey (which caused devastating floods in Houston, Texas) the Caribbean islands and the southwestern coast of Florida braced themselves against the incoming wrath of Hurricane Irma. A category 5 storm, Irma bludgeoned Puerto Rico with 185 mph winds, sweeping a path of destruction that left more than one million residents without power. Looking at the history of hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Irma has without a doubt topped the charts as the strongest hurricane to overwhelm the island on record.

Irma has dethroned Hurricane San Felipe II as the worst hurricane in the island’s history. San Felipe II, also a category 5, made landfall on southeast Puerto Rico on September 14, 1928 with sustained winds of 160 mph—a full 25 mph less than Irma. It sustained its category 5 status as it swept across the island over an 18-hour period. In regions the eye of the storm passed through, whole towns were literally blown off the map, and almost every building on the entire island sustained some sort of damage. Sugar cane factories were swept away along with acres upon acres of coffee crops, decimating Puerto Rico’s already struggling economy. It took nearly a decade for the island to recuperate from the effects of San Felipe II.

Hurricanes are a cross Puerto Rico has always had to bear, experienced approximately every three years and making up nearly 25 percent of the island’s annual rainfall. Locals are of course familiar with the history of hurricanes in Puerto Rico, but rebuilding after these horrific forces of nature is still a daunting task. Of the 70 percent of people experiencing power outages in the aftermath of Irma, some are expected to be without electricity for four to six months.

This news does not bode well for the U.S. territory, which is already contending with a suffocating debt crisis. With intense power outages threatening Puerto Rico’s already disintegrating infrastructure, the aftermath of Hurricane Irma threatens to exacerbate the fragile economy even further. Thankfully, the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were quick to spring into action to deliver immediate assistance to Puerto Rico and surrounding regions. With time and continued aid, Puerto Rico can begin to recover and build anew.

– Micaela Fischer

Photo: Flickr