On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in #PuertoRico, wreaking havoc on the entire island. The Category 4 storm was reportedly the worst natural disaster on record in Puerto Rico, as it left millions without electricity and $90 billion in damage. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Although the Puerto Rican government’s official death toll counts 64, as of December 4th, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says more than 5,600 people could have lost their lives as a result of the massive storm.“Our results indicate that the official death count of 64 is a substantial underestimate of the true burden of mortality after Hurricane Maria,” the study read, according to BuzzFeed.
As part of the research, Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health joined forces with students and researchers in Puerto Rico, Colorado and Boston to survey more than 3,000 random households on the island about known fatalities between the times the hurricane touched down to when it dissipated. In their findings, the researchers found that 4,645 people died in that period, which was much higher than the 1,833 death toll from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. However, researchers believe there could be even more, including residents that live alone, bringing the total to more than 5,600.
The study comes on the heels of widespread suspicion of the government’s death toll, which began just days after the hurricane wrecked the island.
In weeks after the storm, several families told BuzzFeed that they knew of several dozen hurricane-related deaths that weren’t included in the official death toll, which sparked concern. In fact, according to the publication, experts also grew suspicious when the Puerto Rican government failed to clarify how they were categorizing hurricane-related deaths. However, the Gov. eventually launched an independent study into the death toll as well as the government’s methods, the findings of which will be released in February 2019.
