Hurricanes cause vast majority of storm deaths in vulnerable communities
New research puts stark numbers on a well-known disparity: poor and vulnerable communities suffer over 90 percent of deaths associated with major storms.
A few months after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, the governor announced the official death toll: 64.
To anyone who lived through the storm, as well as scientists nationwide, that number seemed impossibly low. After a flurry of studies, several research teams came up with their own estimates, which were some 15 to 65 times higher than the governor's estimate. Eventually, the official toll settled at 2,975—46 times the first number.
The National Hurricane Center tracks and the example from Hurricane Maria show those counts may underestimate the total impacts. In addition, not all assessments are done in the same way, complicating comparisons between storms.
