Big changes for Florida with mass Puerto Rican immigration
9 years agoPeople board a flight to Orlando, Florida at a Luis Munoz Marin International Airport terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 30, 2017. On September 20 powerful Maria tore across Puerto Rico, destroying homes, shattering the island's rickety power grid and phone network, and leaving its 3.4 million residents in the dark and incommunicado. Since the hurricane struck at least 212,000 people have traveled from Puerto Rico to Florida -- mainly central Florida, according to figures from the State Emergency Response Team (SERT). / AFP PHOTO / Ricardo ARDUENGO / TO GO WITH AFP STORY By Leila MACOR, Big changes for Florida with mass Puerto Rican immigration
Cristina Sanchez is one of thousands of Puerto Ricans fleeing their hurricane-ravaged island for Florida, a mass migration set to shape the southern US state as much as migrants from communist Cuba in the late 20th century.