The death toll from Hurricane Maria was updated recently.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-deaths.htmlA long-awaited analysis of Hurricane Maria’s deadly sweep through Puerto Rico prompted the government on Tuesday to sharply increase the official death toll. The government now estimates that 2,975 people died as a result of the disaster and its effects, which unfolded over months.
The new assessment is many times greater than the previous official tally of 64, which was not revised for nearly a year despite convincing evidence that the official death certificates failed to take full account of the fatal and often long-range impacts from the storm across the island.
The revision came just hours after the release of a new assessment of excess deaths in the roughly six months after the storm, conducted at the government’s request by researchers at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. Their report found that nearly 3,000 more deaths than expected occurred in the wake of the storm — 22 percent more than the number of deaths that normally might have occurred in that period.
In other related news, those Puerto Ricans still displaced from their homes have been told to leave the hotels they have been staying in as a judge sided with FEMA for not having to continue to provide shelter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/us/puerto-rico-fema-housing.htmlMIAMI — Almost a year after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, more than 1,000 families who lost their homes remain in hotel rooms paid for by the government. Thursday, a judge’s ruling gave them two more weeks before that assistance runs out, though he conceded they “may well be rendered homeless.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent $92 million on vouchers for families affected by the September 2017 catastrophe to stay in hotels in New York, Florida and other states. The agency has offered three extensions, but families took the federal government to court demanding continued housing aid until everyone had found a place to live.
“The families have been calling and texting me frantically, extremely concerned and traumatized,” said Natasha L. Bannan, a lawyer who handled the case for LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a Hispanic civil rights organization. “There is literally fear that they are going to be homeless. That’s what’s going on right now.”