Recovery is further complicated by a decade-long economic crisis that has left the island responsible for $70 billion in debt and another $50 billion in pension obligations. Home to 3.4 million American citizens, Puerto Rico faces a long-term recovery that will take years. A separate study released in May 2018 by Harvard University estimates 4,645 deaths linked to Hurricane Maria. The Government of Puerto Rico asked George Washington University to conduct a review which changed the death toll to 2,975 deaths as a result of Maria between September 2017 and February 2018.
Though the initial death toll was officially 64, that number came into question as a result of the challenges associated with tracking deaths during the major infrastructure failures that followed Maria. There has been a wide variation in the number of deaths reported in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria. Shortages of medical devices and pharmaceuticals lasted for months and represent a major weakness in the global manufacturing and transportation sectors. These industries represent 30 percent of the island’s economy and primarily supply the United States with essential medical supplies such as intravenous solutions. Providing evacuation notices to affected people was particularly challenging with the failure of the power infrastructure and resulting cascading failures of the communications system.Īn unexpected impact of Maria’s devastation came as a result of extended shutdowns of Puerto Rico’s medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Residents downstream from the Guajataca Dam were evacuated after it was overwhelmed by rain levels and threatened to collapse. A week after Maria struck, USA Today reported that 11 of 69 hospitals had power, 95 percent of the power grid and cell phone infrastructures were inoperable, and “less than half the population had potable water.” The power grid was decimated leaving millions of residents without power and creating a massive infrastructure challenge to relief and recovery efforts across the island. In Puerto Rico, the entire island was devastated by Maria’s 155 mph winds and heavy rains. A damage assessment in Dominica shortly after Maria struck revealed that 85 percent of the island’s houses were damaged and over 25 percent were destroyed completely. The official death toll from Maria in Dominica is 65, but the actual toll could be much higher as a result of respiratory and other health issues that disproportionately affected people with a pre-existing medical condition. Communications to the island nation were cut off shortly after Maria’s landfall, but not before officials had communicated that 70 percent of homes had lost their roofs.
Maria’s first landfall in Dominica was preceded by landslides caused by heavy rains that raised water levels across the island. A Harvard study released in May 2018 put the death toll at 4,645, more than 70 times the official government count of 64. Experts estimate the storm could have contributed to as many as 1,000 deaths in Puerto Rico, according to a December report in The New York Times. Maria was the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico since 1928. 20, 2019, it marked the first time in recorded history that three hurricanes of that strength made landfall in the U.S. When Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. Maria weakened after making landfall, but quickly reformed to a Category 4 hurricane over the Caribbean Sea. The tiny island of Dominica (population 71,000) was the site of Maria’s first landfall, marking the first time that nation had been hit by a Category 5 hurricane. Like Hurricane Irma before it, Maria tracked along the north side of the Caribbean islands, making landfall in Dominica and Puerto Rico, while bringing damaging winds and rains to other Caribbean islands already devastated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Hurricane Maria was the fourth major hurricane to strike the islands of the Caribbean Sea in 2017.
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