IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Puerto Rico Will Be Depopulated

It is more than predicable, it is certain to happen.

Major disasters have a way of rearranging the population of the jurisdiction(s) impacted by the event. One only has to look at how Hurricane Katrina impacted New Orleans.

If you look at the population trend line for Puerto Rico, you will see it has already been in a downward slope. Many working professionals had already decided that the opportunity there was not equal to what they might achieve on the United States mainland. Now with Hurricane Maria devastating the island, many more thousands of people will first move temporarily and then permanently away from the island. Today they are fleeing by the hundreds, the only limiting factor being not having a means to get off the island. 

All of the above will only add to the economic woes for the economy and government that will be working to put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. I think this will be a challenge for "all the president's men."  

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.