Puerto Rico will officially revisit its dubiously low Hurricane Maria death count

Puerto Rico Gov. Rossello will revisit Maria death toll
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The Puerto Rican government's official tally of deaths tied to Hurricane Maria stands at 64, but several news organizations have come up with numbers more than 10 times higher using statistical analysis and old fashioned research. On Monday, Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló ordered officials to look into every death on the island since Maria churned over Puerto Rico starting Sept. 20. The real death toll "may be higher than the official count certified to date," he acknowledged. "This is about more than numbers, these are lives."

The New York Times studied vital statistics from 2015 and 2016 and determined that 1,052 more people than normal died in Puerto Rico in the 42 days after Maria struck, while Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism found that 1,065 more people than usual died. In October, BuzzFeed reported that Puerto Rico had allowed the cremation of 911 unexamined bodies since the hurricane, and CNN tallied Puerto Rican funeral home data and found 499 likely hurricane-related deaths not included in the official count.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.