Maybe those flying over just don't recognize the island anymore. It is just fragments of its former size and shape? I don't know the record number of deaths from a hurricane, but I think it was no more than 8,000 or 9,000. More deaths for typhoons, but this could be a record for the Atlantic, if true.
Hurricane Mitch, I think, may have killed tens of thousands in Central America a few years back . . . it's amazing how thoroughly our MSM ignores fascinating and important news from anywhere outside the U.S. borders . . .