The government of Puerto Rico has revealed in a new report to Congress that more than 1,400 people were killed as a result of Hurricane Maria last year.
Although the government previously estimated the death toll was 64, Puerto Rico’s government included the new death toll in a draft outline of a $139 billion reconstruction plan for the region set for publication Thursday and first reported by the New York Times.
[Related: New York Dem calls for independent commission to investigate Hurricane Maria death toll]
“Although the official death count … was initially 64, the toll appears to be much higher,” the report says. It notes that there were 1,427 more deaths in the four months after the hurricanes than normal for that time of year.
Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said a separate report looking at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the natural disaster “provides a transformative roadmap” moving forward.
The agency admitted it miscalculated the havoc Hurricane Maria would have on the island and its “insufficiently maintained infrastructure.” Additionally, the report also included details that FEMA’s planning was not adequate and that it did not sufficiently prepare for several disasters, given that Hurricane Maria came shortly after other powerful hurricanes.
“With every response or recovery effort, we take with us lessons learned that help build a nation-wide culture of preparedness and shape the way FEMA and the emergency management community respond to and recover from future disasters,” Nielsen said in a statement in July. “2017 taught us that we need to further strengthen the Nation’s ability to rapidly stabilize critical lifelines. It also underscored the importance of enhancing logistics capabilities across the emergency management community.”
