"The sad part my mother Maria Rosa, I still can't find communication after the first call days after the Hurricane his she lost everything want to bring her back to US but how?"

Thousands have fled Puerto Rico for Florida since Hurricane Maria

(source)

 

 Debris scatters a destroyed community in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico. 

 More than 73,000 of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents have fled to Florida since Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean island.  

 “Since October 3, 2017, more than 73,000 individuals arrived in Florida from Puerto Rico through Miami International Airport, Orlando International Airport and the Everglades Port,” Gov. Rick Scott’s office said in a statement. 

 Although Maria struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, it didn’t begin counting until Oct. 3 because that’s when Florida was declared a state of emergency so it could handle the expected effects of the influx of evacuees. 

 The state has also served more than 15,000 Puerto Ricans at disaster relief centers at those sites.Scott also said the State Emergency Response Team is working with private partners to provide transport vessels and essential services and supplies to the storm-ravaged island. 

 Nearly five weeks after Maria made landfall, the situation in Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth, remains dire.More than three-quarters of people are without electricity and 22 percent are still without running water.Florida lawmakers have been discussing the financial hit the state has taken by the evacuees and are calling for additional spending for housing, schools and hospitals.“They are United States citizens, they are our brothers and sisters,” ​Sen. Jack Latvala​, the chairman of the ​Florida Senate Appropriations Committee, said during an emotion appeal to his colleagues on Wednesday. “The question, the only question that we’re raising is that it needs to be a collective decision entered into by the legislature as well as the governor.”