Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico

For over a year data on Hurricane Maria has been misleading, conflicting, and just plain wrong. Maria was the deadliest storm to ever hit the region; in fact, Puerto Rico continues to struggle its way back to normalcy over a year later. One of its biggest obstacles was inaccurate data reporting. The Puerto Rican government has faced harsh criticism for their’ inability to accurately account for deaths related to the storm. Another obstacle was lack of aid from the American government, furthermore, the mere denial of high mortality by President Donald Trump.

In a recent article written by Arelis R. Hernandez and Laurie McGinley for The Washington Post titled ‘Harvard study estimates thousands died in Puerto Rico because of Hurricane Maria’ the authors try their best to clarify speculation about the changing death toll.

One can expect the early days after a natural disaster to have changing numbers in terms of damage costs, death tolls, etc., but for there to be so much confusion now over a year later is alarming.

Hernandez and McGinley spoke of the problems the government encountered while counting the dead. ‘The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that deaths can be directly attributed to storms such as Maria if they are caused by forces related to the environment (Hernandez and McGinley).’ In this case, counting had been done incorrectly and caused the gross miscalculation of deaths. Initial reports claimed that 16 people had perished due to Hurricane Maria. The authors tell us that President Trump specifically noted the low number during his visit to the island in October but by that time the death count had already doubled.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified

Proficient in: Donald Trump

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

By December the media was reporting 64 deaths caused by the storm. Still, many speculated that number was underestimated, and the Puerto Rican government reached out to independent researchers for help. Hernandez and McGinley explained that the studies surveyed over 3,300 households across the island that were chosen randomly and found that deaths related to the hurricane ranged between 800- 8,000. This number seems more accurate to most, but not to all.

Some, including President Trump, are rejecting the studies conducted by Harvard University. In an article released by the Associated Press in September of 2018 titled ‘Trump Rejects Hurricane Maria Death toll in Puerto Rico,’ the authors detail a tweet sent by Trump where he claims ‘3,000 people did not die.’ This was after the governor of Puerto Rico raised the official death toll from Hurricane Maria to 2,975. Trump went as far as to say the Democrats made the number up to make him look bad. This is not unusual behavior for the President; he’s given false information in the past. An article by factcheck.org, tells us he once went on television claiming crime statistics on the percentage of whites killed by blacks he had tweeted earlier were true when in fact all of the figures were wrong (Kiely and Robertson). Sadly, this misrepresentation has affected the recovery time for the island and many are still suffering.

My stance is in agreeance with co-authors Hernandez and McGinley who told a compassionate story of one family’s struggle to prove what conditions were still like in Puerto Rico. The new death toll reflects a more accurate portrayal of the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. ‘These are lives- real people’ the authors quoted the Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello saying about the island’s residents. Countless reports were made about thousands left in the dark with no electricity for months. Hernandez and McGinley entailed the tragedy of how the Montanez family lost their mother/grandmother due to lack of cell phone reception while trying to call for an ambulance. Inoperative traffic signals that had not been fixed since the storm also delayed the ambulance heading their way. The Associated Press quoted Donald Trump saying ‘As time went by (deaths) did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3,000.’ Tragedies like the Montanez family’s explain why the death toll has increased throughout the months. Rural areas of the island are still in need of water and have unstable power which has affected their health and living conditions. The studies were not lies made up by Democrats, they were conducted in order to better prepare for the next hurricane season. Trump’s habit of misrepresenting the truth is harmful to our country and creates confusion and hostility at a time when we should be focusing on the rehabilitation of Puerto Rico.

Today our country is faced with many social issues that have seemed to divide Americans rather than unite. The Me Too movement, Black Lives Matter, even recent outrage over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh allegations have Americans on edge regardless of whose side they’re on. Rather than denying the results of the studies, it’s time to accept study them to stop this level of devastation from happening again. A tragedy is a time to set our differences aside and help one another yet it seems many have forgotten that.