Puerto Rico Had Half as Any People the Last Time It Saw a Hurricane This Bad

By Cassandra Santiago and Brandon Miller, CNN

(CNN) -- If Maria's track holds, Puerto Rico will take a direct hit.

That'll make Maria the first Category 4 or 5 hurricane to make landfall in Puerto Rico in 85 years.

In 1932, the San Ciprián hurricane made landfall in late September, pummeling the island for eight long hours.

At the time, the population of Puerto Rico was a little over 1.5 million.

Today, more than 3.3 million people call the US territory home.

San Ciprián, with winds of 145 mph, ripped across the entire island moving from east to west. More than 3,000 people suffered injuries and 225 died.

Another 250,000 had no homes to go back to.

Structural damages totaled more than $1.5 million, according to records kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Now Puerto Rico is bracing for the worst -- barely two weeks after Hurricane Irma destroyed buildings and caused an ongoing mass loss of electricity.

Both President Trump and Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló have issued emergency declarations.

Rosselló urged Puerto Ricans to find safe shelters immediately. Emergency workers, he said, won't be around to help once winds reach 50 mph.

"This is an unprecedented atmospheric system," he said Tuesday.

And it's one that Puerto Rico hopes doesn't leave it in ruins like San Ciprián did.

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