US Emergency Chief Casts Doubt on 2017 Puerto Rico Toll
US Emergency Chief Casts Doubt on 2017 Puerto Rico Toll
The
The initial death toll in the storm almost exactly a year ago was 64. But several studies in recent months have pegged the number of deaths as much higher, 2,975, according to last month's study by
But the president rejected the 2,975 figure, saying
The university study compared deaths in the past during the same months in other years to those that occurred after Hurricane Maria, and attributed the excess number to the hurricane. The island was ravaged by the storm, its roads badly damaged and leaving much of it without power for months. In many cases, that curtailed medical treatment for those who needed it most and people died.
Long did not accept Trump's contention that opposition
"I don't know why the studies were done," Long told
"And then there's indirect deaths," he said. "So the George Washington study looked at what happened six months after the fact."
He said that even with the current death toll of a dozen or more resulting from Hurricane Florence and its aftermath, "you might see more deaths indirectly occur as time goes on, because people have heart attacks due to stress. They fall off their house trying to fix their roof. They die in car crashes because they went through an intersection where the stop lights weren't working."
"There's all kinds of studies we look at," he said. "Spousal abuse goes through the roof. You can't blame spousal abuse after a disaster on anybody. So much blame going around."
"What we need to be focused on is what
Florence, Now a Tropical Depression, Still Dumping More Rain
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