Report: Storm-hit Puerto Rico lost 130K people in past year

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The U.S. Census Bureau says Puerto Rico lost 130,000 inhabitants between July 2017 and 2018, a period that includes Hurricane Maria.

Officials said Wednesday that the U.S. territory’s population now stands at 3.2 million people, a nearly 14 per cent drop over the past decade and a nearly 4 per cent reduction in just one year.

Puerto Rico already was losing people prior to the September 2017 blow from Maria. The island has been struggling through a 12-year recession, and the hurricane prompted tens of thousands of people to head for the mainland. The Category 4 storm destroyed the island’s power grid and caused more than an estimated $100 billion in damage.