Study hikes Puerto Rico's Hurricane Maria death toll to 4,645 - Reuters30 May 2018: Hurricane Maria claimed the lives of 4,645 people in Puerto Rico last year and not the 64 long pegged by the island's government as the official death toll, according to a survey of thousands of residents by a research team led by Harvard University.The researchers estimated that most victims of the storm died between Sept. 20 and Dec. 31, 2017, as a direct or indirect result of Puerto Rico's worst natural disaster in 90 years. One-third perished because of delayed or interrupted medical care.While cautioning that the estimate of 4,645 victims may be too low, the researchers said the numbers "underscore the inattention of the U.S. government to the frail infrastructure of Puerto Rico. "As the world knows, the magnitude of this tragic disaster caused by Hurricane Maria resulted in many fatalities. We have always expected the number to be higher than what was previously reported," Carlos Mercader, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration said in the government statement.The chief author of the new study, Caroline Buckee of the Harvard T.H. In the most remote areas, 83 percent of the households were still without power by Dec. 31.

Source: Egypt Today May 29, 2018 18:33 UTC