New Study Shows At Least 4,647 Puerto Rican Died After Hurricane Maria, Meanwhile The Official Government Death Toll Is 64 (Pics Below)

At least 4,645 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rice last year. This number is drastically different than the death toll that the official government released, which states that only 64 people lost their lives as a result of the devastation across the island.


The research comes from a new Harvard study. "Our result indicate that the official death count of 64 is a substantial underestimate of the true burden of mortality of the true burden of mortality after Hurricane Maria, "the researchers wrote.

The scientists found that the loss of electricity and crumbling infrastructure caused road closures and communications failures, and as a result that caused "health care disruption for the elderly" and the loss of "basic utility services for the chronically ill."

According to Washington Post, "Researchers in the United State and Puerto Rico, led by scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan school of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, calculated the number of deaths by surveying nearly 3,300 randomly chosen households across the island and comparing the estimated post-hurricane death rate to the mortality rate for the year before.