The True Scope of the Disaster in Puerto Rico
A new survey of the island’s residents finds a much higher death toll from Hurricane Maria than previously reported—putting it on par with one of the worst natural disasters in recent American history.
Just about nobody believes Puerto Rico’s official death toll for Hurricane Maria. Researchers and journalists alike generally accept that the island’s tally of 64 people killed by the storm last September is a massive undercount, so obviously inaccurate that the Puerto Rican government has agreed to review and revise its figures. But with Puerto Rico still in disarray—from the storm’s casualties, population changes from migration, and the absence of basic services—information on the complete human cost of the catastrophe is still woefully incomplete.
What little is known, however, portends a grim conclusion: that Hurricane Maria is one of the most
