National
Puerto Rico governor orders recount of hurricane death toll
Homes and infrastructure lie in ruins outside the city of Caguas, Puerto Rico on Oct. 3. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post) (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
By Arelis R. Hernández
December 18 at 1:46 PM ET
The governor of Puerto Rico ordered all government agencies to reopen their books and initiate a recount and review of certified deaths that have occurred since Hurricane Maria, after weeks of reporting by various news outlets pointed to a possible severe undercount of storm fatalities.
The territorial government has attributed 64 official deaths to the storm and its aftermath, but the New York Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting in Puerto Rico have used vital statistics data to show that the number of deaths in the weeks after the storm far exceeded those of the same time period in previous years. The independent analyses put the death count at likely more than 1,000.
Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told The Washington Post last week that there was “no intent to hide the number of deaths” relative to the storm and that “accountability broke down” in the wake of Hurricane Maria. But his government is committed to reevaluating death certificates that attributed many of the casualties to natural causes.
“We always expected that the number of hurricane-related deaths would increase as we received more factual information — not hearsay — and this review will ensure we are correctly counting everybody,” the governor said in a statement Monday.
The government will now reexamine medical records, interview family members and call doctors for more information to determine whether deaths identified as “natural” need to be reclassified. Rosselló cited the time it took to determine the final death toll for Hurricane Katrina to ask for patience as they conduct their review.
Puerto Rico officials have already begun investigating specific cases in the last several weeks, in some cases, after family members or news organizations came forward with stories that were inconsistent with the official account.
In one such case from Orocovis — a municipality in the central mountain range — a doctor indicated natural causes on the person’s death certificate. The body never reached the central processing hub at the Department of Forensic Sciences. There are hundreds of similar cases in which the bodies were quickly cremated.
When the government investigated further, according to Karixia Ortiz, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, it found that the individual, who suffered from multiple health troubles and relied on an oxygen machine, died the day of the hurricane.
“In the early hours of the day of the hurricane, the power went out in the residence, and when the relatives went to see the person, they found him dead,” according to the Dec. 9 statement from Ortiz. The death was subsequently certified as “indirectly related to the hurricane.”
It has been nearly three months since Maria knocked out power across the island, and thousands are still in the dark. Physicians described horrific conditions inside hospitals and nursing homes in the immediate aftermath of the storm due to the lack of power.
Today, less than half of the island has little or unreliable access to electricity, making life extremely difficult for the sick and elderly who depend on life-saving medical equipment, medicine and treatment to stay alive. Families consistently recounted stories to media outlets about loved ones dying after failing to receive dialysis treatments or having their respirators fail during the crisis. The Puerto Rican government also has documented four suicides and several other deaths related to a bacterial outbreak.
The 64 deaths that have been counted include individuals who died of heart attacks, were trapped in mudslides, drowned in floods and suffered injuries from flying or falling debris, as well as people with medical conditions who did not reach a hospital in time. At least one person died of carbon monoxide poisoning after operating a power generator.
In a statement Monday, Rosselló said he welcomes the news analyses but that the government “cannot base any official fatality related to the hurricane count on statistical analysis.”
“Every life is more than a number, and every death must have a name and vital information attached to it, as well as an accurate accounting of the facts related to their passing,” he said in the statement.
Rosselló provided a flow chart detailing the processes by which his government has been documenting the deaths using guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But in recent weeks, Puerto Rican government officials acknowledged failures in the documentation complicated by the telecommunications difficulties. As news reports questioning the official death count emerged, members of Congress began calling for investigations into the death count.
Héctor Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s secretary of public safety, has repeatedly dismissed those media reports, saying his department, which includes forensic sciences, has followed the law as best it could under the circumstances. But when presented with evidence about specific cases, Pesquera has ordered reviews in recent weeks that resulted in their certification, adding those individuals to the official death count.
“The number is likely to go up,” the governor told the Washington Post last week. There is “no agenda to minimize . . . but to do it diligently.”
The review is a good start, said New York City paramedic Joe Conzo, whose mother died two weeks after the storm passed. But he said he does not expect the final death toll to capture all the casualties that Hurricane Maria caused.
His mother, Lorraine Montenegro, was a well-known Bronx community activist who had a retirement home in the Puerto Rican city of Carolina. More than a week passed before Conzo heard that his mother was fine. But that peace of mind did not last long.
Montenegro deteriorated quickly and was in the hospital a few days later. She could not breathe and had to be intubated. On Oct. 1, the 74-year-old, who her son said had no major medical issues aside from high cholesterol, was pronounced dead.
Her son is still not sure what happened.
“If my mother was home, I’m 99.9 percent sure she’d be alive,” said Conzo, who last week retrieved a copy of Montenegro’s death certificate, which cited COPD as the cause of death. “Those living conditions would take a toll on anyone. That heat and humidity and the lack of water and power and food — it’ll break down a body.”
Montenegro’s death was not included in Puerto Rico’s official death toll, but Conzo thinks the aftermath of the storm contributed to it and that it should be counted. He has not asked the government to take a special look at his mother’s case but hopes the recount will consider cases like those of his mother.
“I’m still grieving,” Conzo said.
Arelis Hernández covers Prince George’s County as part of The Washington Post's local staff.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Puerto Rico governor orders recount of hurricane death toll
Homes and infrastructure lie in ruins outside the city of Caguas, Puerto Rico on Oct. 3. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post) (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
By Arelis R. Hernández
December 18 at 1:46 PM ET
The governor of Puerto Rico ordered all government agencies to reopen their books and initiate a recount and review of certified deaths that have occurred since Hurricane Maria, after weeks of reporting by various news outlets pointed to a possible severe undercount of storm fatalities.
The territorial government has attributed 64 official deaths to the storm and its aftermath, but the New York Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting in Puerto Rico have used vital statistics data to show that the number of deaths in the weeks after the storm far exceeded those of the same time period in previous years. The independent analyses put the death count at likely more than 1,000.
Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told The Washington Post last week that there was “no intent to hide the number of deaths” relative to the storm and that “accountability broke down” in the wake of Hurricane Maria. But his government is committed to reevaluating death certificates that attributed many of the casualties to natural causes.
“We always expected that the number of hurricane-related deaths would increase as we received more factual information — not hearsay — and this review will ensure we are correctly counting everybody,” the governor said in a statement Monday.
The government will now reexamine medical records, interview family members and call doctors for more information to determine whether deaths identified as “natural” need to be reclassified. Rosselló cited the time it took to determine the final death toll for Hurricane Katrina to ask for patience as they conduct their review.
Puerto Rico officials have already begun investigating specific cases in the last several weeks, in some cases, after family members or news organizations came forward with stories that were inconsistent with the official account.
In one such case from Orocovis — a municipality in the central mountain range — a doctor indicated natural causes on the person’s death certificate. The body never reached the central processing hub at the Department of Forensic Sciences. There are hundreds of similar cases in which the bodies were quickly cremated.
When the government investigated further, according to Karixia Ortiz, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, it found that the individual, who suffered from multiple health troubles and relied on an oxygen machine, died the day of the hurricane.
“In the early hours of the day of the hurricane, the power went out in the residence, and when the relatives went to see the person, they found him dead,” according to the Dec. 9 statement from Ortiz. The death was subsequently certified as “indirectly related to the hurricane.”
It has been nearly three months since Maria knocked out power across the island, and thousands are still in the dark. Physicians described horrific conditions inside hospitals and nursing homes in the immediate aftermath of the storm due to the lack of power.
Today, less than half of the island has little or unreliable access to electricity, making life extremely difficult for the sick and elderly who depend on life-saving medical equipment, medicine and treatment to stay alive. Families consistently recounted stories to media outlets about loved ones dying after failing to receive dialysis treatments or having their respirators fail during the crisis. The Puerto Rican government also has documented four suicides and several other deaths related to a bacterial outbreak.
The 64 deaths that have been counted include individuals who died of heart attacks, were trapped in mudslides, drowned in floods and suffered injuries from flying or falling debris, as well as people with medical conditions who did not reach a hospital in time. At least one person died of carbon monoxide poisoning after operating a power generator.
In a statement Monday, Rosselló said he welcomes the news analyses but that the government “cannot base any official fatality related to the hurricane count on statistical analysis.”
“Every life is more than a number, and every death must have a name and vital information attached to it, as well as an accurate accounting of the facts related to their passing,” he said in the statement.
Rosselló provided a flow chart detailing the processes by which his government has been documenting the deaths using guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But in recent weeks, Puerto Rican government officials acknowledged failures in the documentation complicated by the telecommunications difficulties. As news reports questioning the official death count emerged, members of Congress began calling for investigations into the death count.
Héctor Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s secretary of public safety, has repeatedly dismissed those media reports, saying his department, which includes forensic sciences, has followed the law as best it could under the circumstances. But when presented with evidence about specific cases, Pesquera has ordered reviews in recent weeks that resulted in their certification, adding those individuals to the official death count.
“The number is likely to go up,” the governor told the Washington Post last week. There is “no agenda to minimize . . . but to do it diligently.”
The review is a good start, said New York City paramedic Joe Conzo, whose mother died two weeks after the storm passed. But he said he does not expect the final death toll to capture all the casualties that Hurricane Maria caused.
His mother, Lorraine Montenegro, was a well-known Bronx community activist who had a retirement home in the Puerto Rican city of Carolina. More than a week passed before Conzo heard that his mother was fine. But that peace of mind did not last long.
Montenegro deteriorated quickly and was in the hospital a few days later. She could not breathe and had to be intubated. On Oct. 1, the 74-year-old, who her son said had no major medical issues aside from high cholesterol, was pronounced dead.
Her son is still not sure what happened.
“If my mother was home, I’m 99.9 percent sure she’d be alive,” said Conzo, who last week retrieved a copy of Montenegro’s death certificate, which cited COPD as the cause of death. “Those living conditions would take a toll on anyone. That heat and humidity and the lack of water and power and food — it’ll break down a body.”
Montenegro’s death was not included in Puerto Rico’s official death toll, but Conzo thinks the aftermath of the storm contributed to it and that it should be counted. He has not asked the government to take a special look at his mother’s case but hopes the recount will consider cases like those of his mother.
“I’m still grieving,” Conzo said.
Arelis Hernández covers Prince George’s County as part of The Washington Post's local staff.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
