SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Ramona Gonzalez did not drown when Hurricane Maria drenched Puerto Rico. Researchers from George Washington University hired by Puerto Rico’s government estimated last month that 2,975 people had died because of Maria in the six months after landfall, a number Puerto Rico accepted as official. The GWU report found that Puerto Rico had no plan for communication with its citizens in a crisis. Puerto Rico was understocked in part because Hurricane Irma struck two weeks before Maria, battering the U.S. Virgin Islands. Maria Gonzalez tried unsuccessfully to get a referral from her sister’s overwhelmed private hospital to the public one to the hospital ship.

Source: National Post September 14, 2018 15:05 UTC