[caww]

From National Hurricane Center scientist:

.."On current track Maria 'would be the most destructive hurricane in Puerto Rican history' ....

[caww]

...."Map of the 2017 hurricane season to date"...

[advertising guy]

Wow, prayers up

[palmer]

The most destructive hurricane in Puerto Rico history was 1928 (and probably others before that). The sustained winds on land were probably 200. That's likely less than what modern planes would measure in that same storm over the open water. Puerto Rico lost about 1/2 of its economy in that storm.

However, nowadays Puerto Rico has $250B in housing and if that substantially destroyed, that might be a $100B loss. I think that's very much worst case, but it could be a 100% of GDP loss. Big difference from 50% of GDP loss in 1928 (a lot less stuff to lose).