Study: Almost 3,000 died in Puerto Rico after Maria
New count ordered by territory includes those cut off from medical aid
Far more people died in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria than initially thought, according to a new study.
Around 2,975 people died in the five months after the storm, from September 2017 to February 2018, according to the study by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, which was commissioned by the Puerto Rican government.
That total is a dramatic increase from the official death count of 64, which the administration of Gov. Ricardo Rossello has maintained in the 11 months since the storm.
The study found doctors on the island were ill-equipped to properly classify deaths after a natural disaster and the government failed to prepare them before the 2017 hurricane season.
It also found that government emergency plans in place when Maria hit were not designed for hurricanes greater than a Category 1. Maria was a Category 4 with 154 mph winds. Damage was estimated at more than $100 billion.
“The inadequate preparedness and personnel training for crisis and emergency risk communication, combined with numerous barriers to accurate, timely information and factors that increased rumor generation, ultimately decreased the perceived transparency and credibility of the government of Puerto Rico,” the report said.
The official death toll from Maria has been a point of contention since the storm ripped through the middle of the island on Sept. 20, destroying homes and island infrastructure, displacing thousands and plunging the island into a monthslong blackout.
Maria did not discriminate, as people from all social and economic backgrounds perished in the storm, though the death count was higher for Puerto Ricans in poorer communities and elderly men.
“The latest study, commissioned by the Puerto Rican government, puts the tragedy of Hurricane Maria on the same scale as the September 11th attacks,” Rep. Bennie Thompson D-Miss., ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. “Because FEMA and the federal government were simply unprepared, thousands of our fellow American citizens have perished – and we now know that the poor and elderly were the most at risk.”
Rossello has acknowledged in the past that the official count was likely low but hesitated to raise that number until the GWU study was completed.
Besides those directly killed by the storm, scores of others died when they weren’t able to access hospitals over impassable roads, couldn’t plug in dialysis machines when the island went dark or couldn’t cope with the stress after the storm.
The low official death count sparked protests in San Juan and hindered the island’s recovery. This year, Puerto Ricans laid thousands of pairs of shoes outside the island’s Capitol building to represent the uncounted dead.