Puerto Rico’s death toll following Hurricane Maria is 4,465 and not 64 – Harvard University
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CNN reports that an estimated 4,645 people died in Hurricane Maria and its aftermath in Puerto Rico, according to an academic report published Tuesday in a prestigious medical journal.
That figure dwarfs Puerto Rico’s official death toll of 64, which the article’s authors called a “substantial underestimate” of Hurricane Maria’s death toll.
“These numbers … underscore the inattention of the US government to the frail infrastructure of Puerto Rico,” authors from Harvard University and other institutions wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The official death toll in Puerto Rico has been the subject of substantial controversy since Hurricane Maria hit this island, a US territory, on September 20. CNN and other news outlets have used government statistics and extensive interviews with families of the deceased and funeral home directors to question the Puerto Rican government’s official tally of deaths.
Previous estimates suggested Maria contributed to about 1,000 deaths.
