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Puerto Rico Has Released New Data Detailing Deaths in the Wake of Hurricane Maria
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Time/Associated Press
Posted: June 19th, 2018
http://time.com/5310664/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-death-to...
After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Efrain Perez felt a pain in his chest. Doctors near his small town sent him to Puerto Ricos main hospital. But when the ambulance pulled into the parking lot in the capital, San Juan ... a doctor ran out to stop it. He said, Dont bring him in here, I cant care for him,' Perezs daughter, Nerybelle, recalled. Perez died as the ambulance drove him back ... but he is not included in the islands official hurricane death toll of 64 people, a figure at the center of a growing legal and political fight over the response to the Category 4 storm that hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, 2017. Facing at least three lawsuits demanding more data on the death toll, Puerto Ricos government released new information on Tuesday that added detail to the growing consensus that hundreds or even thousands of people died as an indirect result of the storm. According to the new data, there were 1,427 more deaths from September to December 2017 than the average for the same time period over the previous four years. The Puerto Rican government says it believes more than 64 people died as a result of the storm but it will not raise its official toll until George Washington University completes a study of the data being carried out on behalf of the U.S. territory. Like Perez, thousands of sick Puerto Ricans were unable to receive medical care in the months after the storm caused the worst blackout in U.S. history, which continues to this day, with 6,983 home and businesses still without power.
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