Posted on 08/28/2018 9:13:33 AM PDT by cll
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Hurricane Maria killed far more people in Puerto Rico than initially thought, accounting for an estimated 2,975 deaths on the island from September 2017 through February 2018, according to a new analysis. The study found that those in low-income areas, and elderly men, were at greatest risk of dying.
The independent analysis was commissioned by the governor of Puerto Rico and conducted by researchers at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health. CBS News obtained a report on the findings from Carlos Mercader, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration.
To arrive at the 2,975 figure, the study looked at historical death patterns from 2010 to 2017 to estimate how many people would have died had Hurricane Maria not hit the island. That figure was then compared to the actual number of deaths from September 2017 through February 2018 — obtained in records provided by the Puerto Rico Vital Statistics Records division of the Puerto Rico Department of Health — to determine what the report describes as the "estimate of excess mortality due to the hurricane."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
"The official government estimate of 64 deaths from the hurricane is low primarily because the conventions used for causal attribution only allowed for classification of deaths attributable directly to the storm, e.g., those caused by structural collapse, flying debris, floods and drownings," the report says. "During our broader study, we found that many physicians were not oriented in the appropriate certification protocol. This translated into an inadequate indicator for monitoring mortality in the hurricane's aftermath."
The report goes on to say that "physician unawareness of appropriate death certification practices after a natural disaster and the Government of Puerto Rico's lack of communication about death certificate reporting prior to the 2017 hurricane season substantially limited the count of deaths related to Maria."
The report, which analyzed processes related to death certification, says that physicians and forensic physicians are among those in Puerto Rico who are authorized to complete death certificates, but that most physicians have no formal training in how to do so. They are therefore unaware of "appropriate death certification practices, especially in a disaster setting," the report found".
Has anyone investigated how Puerto Rico could be so unprepared for a hurricane?
Democrats
Why is it that I suspect the number is being padded for some economic or political reason?
So what’s the motivation in running up the score? Blame Trump? Lobby for more dough for the lazy Puerto Rican slugs?
Imagine an EF-3 tornado the size of your state, tearing clear across the entire length and width of it for 8 hours, in addition to the storm force winds that preceded and tailed it for almost 48 hours, two weeks after being hit by another one. How do you prepare for that?
For practical reasons: How to allocate resources and prepare for a future similar event, anywhere else in the U.S.
For practical reasons: How to allocate resources and prepare for a future similar event, anywhere else in the U.S.
They’ll keep padding until they pass the toll from 911, would be my guess.
No... deaths caused by the hurricane: 5
Deaths caused by the incompetent state government response to the hurricane: 2,970
Could be.
by having emergency workers onhand, trained electricians on hand, food and water and medicines stored in safe facilities for immediate distribution afterwards- There’s lots that could be done to prepare- They did not prepare, and expected the US to come to their aid and fix everything after they failed to do so. They live in hurricane prone area- One would think they would be prepared for disasters such as this- Yet All they did was blame the US afterwards-
Note also that the PR government withheld supplies after the hurricane because they didn’t care about the residents. They only wanted to make it look like President Trump wasn’t helping.
Not sure that future allocations are the issue here.
I suspect monetary allocations now are the issue here.
I’ll grant you that’s a rather cynical view.
"Never let a crisis go to waste."
Hey, respectfully, “they” is “we”. I live in Puerto Rico and went through the storms, and worse, their aftermath.
I prepared. My business prepared. My neighbors prepared. We fared quite well in our area and supported each other, without waiting for the government. That was the case for most if not all the people I know.
The local government collapsed for the first couple of weeks, completely, and was overwhelmed the rest of the time and almost a year later, it still is.
The federal government response was abundant. In fact, on the other side of overwhelming since they sent thousands of helpers, who took over virtually every hotel room and rental car, stalling for months the restart of our very important tourism industry.
But if the federal government help was abundant in materiel and personnel, it lacked in coordination and structure, and there was a lot of wasted time.
That’s the true story from my first-person perspective.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.