Photo above: Hurricane Maria over Puerto Rico, from the National Hurricane Center.

My personal relationship with Puerto Rico started when I was five years old. My mother took me on a trip to visit Condado Beach. I was a New York City kid and this was my first trip out of the country. I was so entranced by Puerto Rico I still have some memories of it. Mental images of our playing in the sand, laughing, swimming, and eating at the hotel where we stayed. That trip was so wonderful, we repeated it—several times.

When I got married, my husband joined my mother and I. When he turned forty, my gift to him was one more trip there. (As an amazing coincidence, where I stayed with him on that trip, The Marriott Hotel Stellaris, is actually depicted right in the book cover of my latest novel. It’s the large brown…