 In September 2017, following the immense destruction wrought upon Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo led an aid delegation to San Juan, including engineers from the New York Power Authority to help restore Puerto Rico's electrical grid; subsequently, on the one-year anniversary of the storm, in September 2018, Governor Cuomo announced plans for the official New York State memorial to honor the victims of Hurricane Maria, to be built in Battery Park City, Manhattan, citing the deep cultural connections shared between New Yorkers and Puerto Rican Americans.The stateside Puerto Rican community has usually been characterized as being largely poor and part of the urban underclass in the United States.Studies and reports over the last fifty years or so have documented the high poverty status of this community.