Hurricane Maria’s toll

New study says almost 3,000 died, far more than originally reported.

Nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico in the chaotic, grueling aftermath of Hurricane Maria, a toll that far exceeds the original estimates, according to a new study.

From September 2017 to February 2018, 2,975 people died, 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 long-held count of 64, which the administration of Gov. Ricardo Rossello left unchanged in the 11 months since the storm. Tuesday, Rossello said the study’s estimate, for now, would become the official death toll from Maria – making the storm the second-deadliest in U.S. history, trailing only the Galveston, Texas, hurricane that killed more than 6,000 people in 1900.

“It is painful,” Rossello said at a news conference. “It’s a continuing realization that a lot of people lost their lives, a continuing realization that a lot of people are going through hardships.”

He said he ordered the creation of a commission to study how to implement the report’s recommendations.

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 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.

Maria did not discriminate. People from all social and economic backgrounds perished, but the death count was proportionately higher among the poor and elderly, the report says.

A new study 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.