Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a high-end Category 4 hurricane on September 20, 2017, resulting in the island's most severe natural disaster in modern history. The entire island suffered devastating effects with the whole population losing access to electricity, the majority losing access to clean water, tens of thousands of homes destroyed, and road infrastructure left crippled. A series of cascading infrastructure failures compounded the direct effects of the hurricane. Lack of aid, electricity, water, and access to medical care endangered many people; elderly and poor residents were most impacted.
Despite the severity of these impacts, the Government of Puerto Rico initially reported that only 64 people died in the hurricane. Numerous media outlets harshly criticized the government for suppressing the true death toll. Investigative reporting corroborated these accusations, with The New York Times finding upwards of 1,000 potentially hurricane-related fatalities in the months following Maria. In response to mounting accusations of a cover-up, the government ordered an independent investigation and on December 18, 2017, contracted a study of the death toll by the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
In February 2018, CNN and Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism filed three lawsuits against the Government of Puerto Rico to obtain details on deaths in the months following Maria. Following a court ruling, the government released the withheld information. Statistical data showed an increase of 1,427 deaths in 2017 as compared to the preceding four years; however, the number attributable to Maria could not be determined. On August 28, the Government of Puerto Rico revised the official death toll to be 2,975 people, ranking Maria as one of the deadliest hurricanes in United States history. The official estimate is based on a study commissioned by the governor of Puerto Rico, where researchers at George Washington University developed statistical models showing the number of excess deaths for the time period between September 2017 and February 2018 to be between 2,658 and 3,290 (with a 95 percent confidence interval). Researchers attributed the low initially reported death count to "lack of awareness of appropriate death certification practices after a natural disaster" among physicians reporting deaths to vital statistic agencies.
Background
In the decade preceding Maria, Puerto Rico suffered from major financial decline and crippling debt from a combination of poor fiscal management and changes in federal tax policy. In early 2017, the territory filed for bankruptcy as its public debt reached $74 billion. A change in federal taxation policy prompted an exodus of lucrative business and reduced tax revenue; poverty rates reached 45 percent. Aging infrastructure across the island makes the electrical grid more susceptible to damage from storms; the median age of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) power plants is 44 years. Inadequate safety also plagues the company, and local newspapers frequently describe poor maintenance and outdated controls. PREPA struggled with increasing debt, reaching $9 billion before the hurricanes prompting them to file for bankruptcy. Furthermore, the company reduced its staffing by 30 percent since 2012. Alongside being outdated, the electrical infrastructure was built largely above ground and exposed to the direct effects of hurricanes.
The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season produced multiple powerful and long-lived tropical cyclones. August and September proved to be especially active, featuring three catastrophic hurricanes: Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Timothy Gallaudet, acting director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, described it as "a season that wouldn't quit". In early September, Irma devastated the Leeward Islands as a Category 5 hurricane and tracked close to Puerto Rico. Although the center remained well offshore, tropical storm-force winds affected the territory and caused substantial damage. The storm weakened the already embattled power grid, and left it susceptible to complete failure. While recovery efforts remained underway in Texas and Florida for Harvey and Irma, respectively, Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20 as a high-end Category 4 hurricane. The hurricane inflicted catastrophic damage island-wide, decimating the power grid, crippling road infrastructure, and leaving the majority of people without access to clean water.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency had little time to prepare and respond, and had shipped out many of the supplies it had stored on Puerto Rico to assist recovery from Irma in the US Virgin Islands. The agency admitted logistical failures, personnel shortages, and communication troubles with the local government vastly hampered their ability to assist in recovery. Inland communities remained isolated for days after the storm struck, leaving the territory's poor and elderly especially vulnerable. Injured persons or those in need of regular medical care (such as dialysis) were unable to access emergency services for prolonged periods of time. Food and water shortages exacerbated the risk of death, especially in inland communities.
Initial criticisms In the months following Maria, the official death toll relayed from the Government of Puerto Rico came into question by media outlets, politicians, and investigative journalists. Scores of people who survived the hurricane's initial onslaught later died from complications in its aftermath. Catastrophic damage to infrastructure and communication hampered efforts to accurately document the total loss of life. An electronic database system for reporting deaths was not in existence at the time of the hurricane and most of the internet and communication systems were destroyed. In 2018 a judge ruled that a database should be created and made public with death records. In the governor's published recovery report in 2018, titled Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation, then governor Rosselló proposed creating a new national electronic reporting system that would hopefully improve accuracy in death reporting after a natural disaster. such as Hurricane Maria.
In Corozal, the government listed no fatalities; however, the mayor of the town, Sergio Torres Torres disputed this claim saying he knew for a fact that deaths had occurred. Deaths related to power outages at Manatí Medical Center were not sent to San Juan for examination according to executive director José S. Rosado. He asserted heart attacks as natural causes; however, this is in direct contrast to government definitions, which include heart attacks as hurricane-related causes.
In an October 12, 2017 public letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Representatives Nydia Velázquez and Bennie Thompson complained that the death toll was underreported, either intentionally "to portray relief efforts as more successful than they are", or "due to a lack of capacity on the island", and requested that DHS immediately evaluate the accuracy and methodology of the enumeration. In contrast, Mónica Menéndez—deputy director of the Bureau of Forensic Sciences—called the claims of hundreds of fatalities incorrect and dismissed them as "rumors". Secretary of Public Safety Héctor M. Pesquera called claims of meddling with the death toll "horseshit". In CNN's report, they indicate that at least part of the issue is also related to subjectivity on what counts as a hurricane-related death.
Government records and handling
Initial reports
During a press conference on October 3, 2017, President Donald Trump applauded the initial low death toll—at the time the government only certified 16 deaths—and claimed it was nothing like "a real catastrophe like [Hurricane] Katrina" in 2005 with thousands dead. San Juan Mayor Yulín Cruz harshly criticized Trump as "killing [Puerto Ricans] with the inefficiency [of relief efforts]." Following the visit by Trump, concerns over political motivations in the handling of relief efforts surged. The magnitude of devastation proved to be an unprecedented challenge for relief efforts by the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA. Senator Kamala Harris claimed that "the government failed Puerto Rico at every level in the wake of Hurricane Maria".
Between September 20 and October 18, the island's only medical examiner authorized 911 bodies for cremation; however, they were not physically examined and simply given "natural causes" as the cause of death. Official statistics showed increases of about 20% and 27% in overall fatalities in Puerto Rico during September 2017, compared to 2016 and 2015, followed by a decrease of about 10% in October 2017 compared to the previous two Octobers.
On November 3, San Juan Mayor Yulín Cruz said that the actual death toll for Puerto Rico may have been as high as 500, which was more than 10 times higher than the official death toll as of early November 2017.
By the end of November, the Puerto Rican government maintained that their report of 55 fatalities was the most accurate despite ample contrary evidence collected by media and investigative journalists. On December 9, the official death toll reported by the government was 64; this count remained unchanged six months later. According to Governor Ricardo Rosselló, the government maintained the death toll at 64 in accordance with Centers for Disease Control protocols.
Through at least June 2018, hundreds of unclaimed bodies remained in morgues, and the island's primary morgue was "overflowing" with them. A total of 307 bodies were stored at the San Juan morgue and four refrigerators in a nearby lot. Staff shortages resulting from budget cuts further complicated the situation as bodies were unable to be processed in a timely fashion.
2018 lawsuits and corrections
In light of mounting evidence contradicting the official government death toll and allegations of a cover-up, CNN and Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism filed three lawsuits against the Government of Puerto Rico in February 2018. The lawsuits requested the government to release "death certificates and related data". During court hearings, the government argued that at least some information should be withheld over privacy concerns for the dead. On June 4, Superior Court Judge Lauracelis Roques Arroyo ruled the requested information to be public record and ordered the data to be published within a week. The government filed a motion to delay the release of these records on June 12, citing more time was needed to compile the information due to limited staff and budgeting. However, the court rejected the motion and maintained the original release date. Accordingly, the Government of Puerto Rico released updated death statistics for the months following Hurricane Maria on June 13. Compared to the average deaths in September to December 2013 – 2016, September to December 2017 had 1,427 excess deaths; however, it is unknown how many of these deaths are attributable to the hurricane. Furthermore, the government acknowledged the death toll was greater than 64 but an official revision would not be made until the results of George Washington University study were published.