Royal Caribbean cruises giving Puerto Ricans free one way cr...

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Who didn't see this coming?

Thousands of people lined up at San Juan Harbor on Thursday to board a cruise ship that will take them to the United States, and many have said they don't think they will ever come back.*

The cruise ship will carry 3,800 passengers from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. A company spokesman said the cruise line is providing the passages free of charge and that travelers were registered with the help of local officials.

The company canceled its voyages last week and next week in order to free the ship up for relief missions. Norwegian Cruises has done the same and last week took supplies to affected islands.*

The ship will make humanitarian calls in the hurricane-hit US Virgin Islands, where it will drop off supplies. It will then head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a planned arrival of October 3.

The cruise line said it will work with airlines to make travel arrangements for passengers looking to meet up with friends and family on the mainland.

'This is a humanitarian mission on behalf of Royal Caribbean,' company spokesman Owen Torres said.

As American citizens, Puerto Ricans can easily move to the mainland. Migration has soared in recent years, fueled by Puerto Ricans' desire for economic stability, jobs, schools and access to medical care.

Between April 2010 and July 2016, the population of Puerto Rico dropped by 8.4 percent, the US Census said, the largest percentage drop of any US state or territory.

Nearly one-third of those born in Puerto Rico now live on the US mainland, economists wrote in a research report published on a blog site run by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Puerto Rico, which earlier this year filed the biggest bankruptcy in US municipal history, is struggling to regain economic stability in the face of a $72billion debt load and near-insolvent public health and pension systems.*

While supplies are arriving en masse, the problem now lies in distribution.*

As part of the, 9.500 containers in the capital, 3,000 contain clothes, food, medicine and building supplies. However, only four-percent of the contents of those 3,000 have been distributed.*

With only 20 percent of the island's truckers reporting back to work since Maria hit. :rofl