The death count for Hurricane Maria, currently at 64, may be off by thousands

The Puerto Rican government has a list of 64 dead from Hurricane Maria, the tropical cyclone that hit the island in September 2017.  

This number, however, is “highly uncertain” notes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A new study published Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine puts that number at an estimated 4,645 — 70 times higher than the official estimate. 

“Our results indicate that the official death count of 64 is a substantial underestimate of the true burden of mortality after Hurricane Maria,” write the authors, led by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Read more…

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