Hurricane Maria death toll estimated at 2,975, study shows

Thousands of people died in the months following Hurricane Maria, according to an independent investigation.

The study estimates that 2,975 more people died between September 2017 and February 2018 compared to the same period a year earlier.

The report, conducted by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, was commissioned by the governor of Puerto Rico amid calls for a more rigorous investigation into the hurricane’s death toll after the government estimated it had killed just 64 people.

The 2,975 “excess deaths” represent a 22 percent spike in the usual number of deaths during the same period in a year without a storm, according to the study.

It also found that certain groups, including those living in the poorest municipalities, and males over the age of 65, were more prone to death.

“The results of our epidemiological study suggest that, tragically, Hurricane Maria led to a large number of excess deaths throughout the island. Certain groups – those in lower income areas and the elderly – faced the highest risk,” said Carlos Santos-burgoa, the principal investigator of the project and global health professor at GW Milken Institute SPH. “We hope this report and its recommendations will help build the island’s resilience and pave the way toward a plan that will protect all sectors of society in times of natural disasters,” he said.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., who was born in Puerto Rico, used the study’s findings to trash the federal government’s inadequate response to the hurricane.

“Once again, we have yet more mounting evidence about the enormity of the tragedy that befell Puerto Rico last year. These numbers are only the latest to underscore that the federal response to

“The official government estimate of 64 deaths from the hurricane is low primarily because the conventions used for causal attribution only allowed for classification of deaths attributable directly to the storm. e.g., those caused by structural collapse, flying debris, floods and drownings,” the report says. “During our broader study, we found that many physicians were not oriented in the appropriate certification protocol. This translated into an inadequate indicator for monitoring mortality in the hurricane’s aftermath.”

WASHINGTON – Catholics teachers on Tuesday added their voices to the escalating calls for the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, to resign after a onetwo punch of major scandals for the church implicated the cardinal in covering up sexual abuse.

First a massive investigation in Pennsylvania which documented abuse by 300 priests, over the course of 70 years, focused attention on Wuerl's mixed record of dealing with abusive priests when he was bishop of Pittsburgh.

And then Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, in a dramatic letter that is rattling the church, included an allegation that Wuerl knew about sexual misconduct committed by his predecessor, Theodore Mccarrick. Wuerl insists he was unaware. The misconduct in question involved young priests and seminarians, although this summer Mccarrick was Catholic teachers protest outside of Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Tuesday, calling for Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s resignation.

accused of harassing two minors as well.

“We're demanding that Cardinal Wuerl step down,” said Jack Devlin, one of more than 40 Catholic school teachers who demonstrated against Wuerl outside the annual back-toschool Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Tuesday morning. “How can I face my students, one, with this on the table, and two, when we tell them to speak up for what's right, if I don't lead by example?”

Other groups of a few dozen protesters have showed up calling for

Wuerl's resignation in the past week outside his residence and outside Sunday Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral. And Washington attorney general Karl Racine told City Paper reporter Tom Sherwood that he believes Wuerl should step aside pending investigation; the attorney general said on WAMU that his "phone has been burning up" with Washingtonians calling for an investigation similar to Pennsylvania's inquiry into the Catholic church.

Racine did not respond to The Washington Post's request for comment on Tuesday.