Puerto Rico officially updated the number of lives lost to Hurricane Maria to 2,975 on Tuesday, after an academic study suggested the number was 46 times higher than originally reported.
“Even though it’s an estimate … we are putting an official number to the death toll,” Governor Ricardo Rosselló said at a press conference. “We will take the 2,975 number as the official estimate for the excess deaths as a product of the hurricane.”
The government originally pegged the number of deaths at 64 in December, but studies at Harvard and George Washington University called that number into question, suggesting numbers in the thousands.
The Puerto Rican government’s updated number for deaths caused by the hurricane and its aftermath matched GWU’s; Harvard put the estimate even higher at 4,645.
The Trump administration and Puerto Rican officials faced backlash for their response to the hurricane, which knocked out power systems for months and left citizens without food and water as well as phone communication.
“I agree that we could be and should be more effective on the operational side,” the governor admitted. “I agree I made mistakes.”
“This is a review process . . . and everybody is going to be expected to make change,” he went on, “and if they can’t make change, then they cannot be in the administration.”
The governor praised the “good recommendations” in the GWU report and announced an investigation into how the island could improve its preparedness and response to future storms, including providing better financial resources.
Many of the deaths considered hurricane-related occurred after the hurricane itself, when residents were left stranded without electricity, running water, or transportation.
“This is a time for Puerto Ricans to bind together, to mourn, to reflect on the things that were done properly and the things that were mistakes and to have a firm commitment to identifying those mistakes and make sure that moving forward towards our future those mistakes aren’t repeated,” Rosselló said.