GOVERNOR ORDERS REVIEW OF DEATHS AFTER HURRICANE

Puerto Rico’s governor on Monday ordered authorities to review all deaths reported since Hurricane Maria hit nearly three months ago amid accusations that the U.S. territory has vastly undercounted storm-related deaths. Gov. Ricardo Rossello said it’s possible the toll is higher than the 64 deaths currently blamed on the Category 4 hurricane that hit on Sept. 20, causing an estimated $95 billion in damage.

“We always expected that the number of hurricane-related deaths would increase as we received more factual information — not hearsay — and this review will ensure we are correctly counting everybody,” he said.

Previously, Rossello’s administration had defended the official count of hurricane-related deaths even though demographers said a spike in the average number of deaths after the hurricane was not normal.

Officials have said the average number of daily deaths increased from 82 to 117 after the storm, with a total of 2,838 deaths reported in September, a 20 per cent increase from the 2,366 deaths reported for the same month in 2016 and up from 2,242 in September 2015.

While the current death toll includes some who died of heart attacks, suicide and respiratory failure, critics say it fails to account for all of those for which the storm and the hardships it caused were contributing factors.