Hurricane death toll nearly 3000
Puerto Rico’s governor raised the United States territory’s official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2975 yesterday after an independent study found that the number of people who succumbed in the desperate, sweltering aftermath had been severely undercounted.
The new estimate of nearly 3000 dead in the six months after Maria devastated the island in September 2017 and knocked out the entire electrical grid was made by researchers with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
‘‘We never anticipated a scenario of zero communication, zero energy, zero highway access,’’ Governor Ricardo Rossello told reporters. ‘‘I think the lesson is to anticipate the worst.’’
He acknowledged Puerto Rico remained vulnerable to another major storm and noted that there were still 60,000 homes without a proper roof and that the power grid was still unstable.
Yesterday’s finding is almost twice the government’s previous estimate, included in a recent report to Congress, that there were 1427 more deaths than normal in the three months after the storm.
The George Washington researchers said the official count from the September 20 hurricane was low in part because doctors were not trained in how to classify deaths after a disaster.
The number of deaths from September 2017 to February 2018 was 22 per cent higher than during the same period in previous years, Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken institute, said.
The White House issued a statement yesterday noting that it sent 12,000 personnel to Puerto Rico for response and recovery efforts, and said it would continue to support the island.
Yet many remain outraged at both the local and federal governments. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a New York Democrat, said the report shows the US government failed the people of Puerto Rico. ‘‘These numbers are only the latest to underscore that the federal response to the hurricanes was disastrously inadequate and, as a result, thousands of our fellow American citizens lost their lives,’’ she said.
Researchers with George Washington said they counted deaths over the span of six months – a much longer period than usual – because so many people were without power during that time.
Months ago, the Rossello administration stopped updating its official death toll at 64 and ordered the independent investigation amid suspicions the dead were substantially undercounted.
The first phase of the study cost $305,000. In the second phase, the researchers plan to focus on the causes of death.
The study also found that government emergency plans were not designed for hurricanes greater than a Category 1. Maria was a Category 4 with 247 kilometres per hour winds. Damage was estimated at more than $100 billion. –