CRISIS/PUERTO RICO: “Puerto Rico’s official death toll from Hurricane Maria more than doubled from 16 to 34 two weeks after the storm as a result of a full accounting intended to add up the piecemeal reports from around the island, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Wednesday [10-4-17].
Governor Rosselló said at a news briefing Wednesday that he had commissioned the accounting to add up the reports slow to arrive from devastated hospitals and local medical agencies. The new tally may still not be complete, but it offers the clearest picture yet of the death toll and how people died during and after Maria, he said.
Nineteen people were killed directly by the storm — by drowning, being buried in mudslides, struck by falling objects or otherwise, Governor Rosselló said. He said the others had died indirectly — from a heart attack or suicide, or because they languished without oxygen or necessary medical care as hospitals floundered without power and patients were cut off from care…
The new numbers show that the storm and its aftermath were not only deadlier than originally thought, but deadlier than President Trump apparently realized when he told Puerto Ricans on Tuesday that they should be proud that only 16 had died in the storm…
At the news conference, Governor Rosselló also responded to Mr. Trump’s comment in an interview with Fox News that his administration could help the island wipe out its crushing $73 billion debt.”
-Luis Ferre-Sadurni, “Higher Puerto Rico Death Toll Reflects Survey Across Island,” The New York Times online, Oct. 4, 2017