CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — She had traded in her new normal in Puerto Rico — no electricity, no internet, no classes — for the suburbs of Long Island and the comforts of a Residence Inn. Aurelys Alers-Ortiz traveled with several other University of Puerto Rico law students who took up Touro Law Center’s offer to flee the devastation of Hurricane Maria and finish their semester here.

But as she returned to the rhythms of campus life, with lectures on intellectual property and copyrights and socializing with other students, her mind has often been pulled back home, where her family has stayed and where routines and livelihoods remain unraveled by the storm.

“I’m just lying in bed, with the air-conditioning,” she said, “and thinking of my mom.”

An influx of Puerto Ricans arriving in the continental United States has swelled in recent weeks, now reaching the tens of thousands, as a sluggish recovery compounds the island’s devastation. Officials in several states are grappling with how to accommodate the needs of the newcomers, who require housing and health care and are enrolling their children in school in growing numbers. In Florida, which has seen the biggest infusion of Puerto Ricans, the resettlement stands to reshape the state’s demographics and perhaps its politics.

But the population shift poses a potentially much larger challenge for Puerto Rico, as it tries to stagger back not just from the disastrous toll of Hurricane Maria but years of steep economic decline that had left the island beleaguered even before the storm’s landfall on Sept. 20. Many who are leaving are professionals, students and other young people who would be essential to recovery and setting Puerto Rico on a better course.