Puerto Rico’s death toll from Hurricane Maria could be substantially higher than the 45 fatalities reported by the government, experts said.
Members of Congress have asked the U. S. Department of Homeland Security to investigate underreporting in Puerto Rico’s official death toll following Hurricane Maria.
The official government count is 45 fatalities but experts suspect that it is substantially higher than that.
Reps. Nydia M. Velazquez and Bennie G. Thompson, the Ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security, asked for the official review after media reports suggested that many more than 45 causalities have resulted from the Category 5 storm.
«The American people deserve to know what’s happening to their fellow U. S. citizens in Puerto Rico,» Velazquez said. «Given recent reports suggesting that the death toll is much higher than is being officially acknowledged, we need a swift and thorough investigation to ensure the real magnitude of this crisis is madae public.»
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«We are seeing numerous reports that the death toll is unknown or not being reported accurately. The whole nation deserves to know what is happening to our fellow citizens,» Thompson said.
The representatives’ letter to the U. S. Department of Homeland Security said that media reports have detailed more than 450 people who have died in the wake of Maria.
The letter calls the official tally into question. «While it is unclear how many of these casualties are directly attributable to Maria, these numbers call into question the veracity of official government death counts,» it reads.
The letter challenged the ethics of obfuscating the real death toll. «It would be morally reprehensible to intentionally underreport the true death toll to portray relief efforts as more successful than they are.»
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Nearly 90% of Puerto Rico remains without power, while many of the island’s 3.4 million residents are lacking proper shelter or clean drinking water weeks after Hurricane Maria struck.
Adding to the headache are communication breakdowns that some experts believe are keeping the officially reported death toll astonishingly lower — possibly by hundreds.
Maria Santiago de Jesus, wife of Ciales Mayor Luis Maldonado, said the communications system is down through the city, which is located about 45 minutes inland from San Juan.
«It takes us three to four days to get any kind of information or announcements about what’s happening,» Santiago de Jesus told the Daily News.
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An analysis by Vox published Wednesda y found Puerto Rico’s hurricane death toll to be closer to 81, citing news reports and statements by local officials.
Both post-storm illnesses and accidents will boost the numbers even further, along with proper death reporting once rural areas can be contacted or accessed, one expert said.
“Getting any kind of big picture information with almost anything to do with this disaster is extremely difficult,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a physician and director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness.
«A lot of the places where there are going to be significant fatalities are isolated,» he continued.
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All storm-related deaths — either directly or indirectly because of Maria’s wrath — are currently being confirmed by the Institute of Forensic Science.
What local leaders, funeral homes and news outlets aren’t recording isn’t necessarily factored in, according to news outlets.
Instead, bodies have to be brought to San Juan, or an examiner has to venture to areas to confirm if a death was storm related.
«We try to consult all of the parties who can consult in the analysis of deaths related directly or indirectly to the hurricane,» Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Karixia Ortiz told HuffPost last week .
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Among those that didn’t make the official count are eight of the nine fatalities reported in Toa Baja, Vox noted.
Two funeral homes previously told Buzzfeed News that 18 people died from the storm — either directly or indirectly — but only one person killed in a landslide was factored in, the Vox analysis found .
Citizens have died from a number of post-storm causes such as failing medical help, landslides, falling debris and illnesses such as leptospirosis, which is spread through drinking water tainted by animal urine.
Coupling those effects with the immediate deaths from Maria has presented a catastrophe for the island, Redlener told The News.
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«All of this represents a very significant public health threat,» he said. «A significant and complex health threat for Puerto Rico.»
The island’s government doesn’t fully have a handle on the death toll as a result, he added, «Nobody has that at the moment.»
Communications have marred most relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
«In every town we were in we said, ‘can we call you to bring you some aid’ and they laugh at us because there is no cell phone,» said Dr. Alison Thompson, a fulltime humanitarian worker. «We are moving so fast in technology but in disaster zones we have to put one foot in the past.»
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Volunteer rescue workers also say that the death toll far exceeds official estimates.
A number of those workers have reported that the morgue in Aguadilla — a coastal town in northwest Puerto Rico — was closed because it could no longer accommodate bodies.
Numerous sources said 400 to 500 bodies were in the town’s morgue, and FEMA was sending in freezers to have bodies removed from the facility. FEMA didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
El Vocero reported last week that another 350 bodies were in the Institute of Forensic Science’s morgue, but it remained unclear how many were from the storm.
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While FEMA and other agencies arrived in Puerto Rico before the storm, the Trump administration has been under fire for delays in activating the military response.
