We Might Never Know Puerto Rico Maria Death Toll, But U.S. Surely Dropped Ball On Response

Harvard researchers say the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria
last year was many times more than the "official" count. I guess
Donald Trump throwing paper towels into a Puerto Rican
crowd was inadequate hurricane relief. 

People are rightly appalled by the figures provided by Harvard University researchers who put the death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year at 4,645.

That's far above the "official" death toll of 64 attributed to the Category 4 hurricane on the island.

The Harvard researchers' findings is an estimate and could well be off. Still, it's horrifying.

It's based on a survey of 3,299 Puerto Rican households, which indicates 31 percent of respondents reported disruptions in medical services and 14 percent said they were unable to get their medications, according to the Associated Press. 

From there the researchers extrapolated the number of deaths caused by the lack of medical care post-Maria.

And that's the big takeaway from this research as far as I'm concerned. However many people died from the hurricane in Puerto Rico, the overwhelming majority of the casualities were not caused directly by storm surges, or flooding or high winds.

Most of the deaths were caused by a weak response to Maria. Yes, surely, some people would have died of medical complications in the immediate aftermath of such an extensive disaster. But the fact that the power was out for months in many areas, and that resources weren't applied adequately to the island is a national shame.

Remember, Puerto Rico is part of the United States. I remain convinced that because most Puerto Ricans aren't white, and most are Hispanic, the response wasn't as robust as it could have been, due to, yes, racism.

Let's face it, the response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida last year was way more effective and timely than the Maria response in Puerto Rico. 

I do agree with Vox and other commentaries that the poor response to Maria was a mix of the Trump's administration's racism and its incompetence. As Vox says:

"Suspicion will, of course, linger for years that there's a connection between Trump's habit of weaponizing anti-Latino hysteria as the centerpiece of his politics and the unfolding of an essentially unprecedented human tragedy in a Spanish-speaking U.S. territory. 

The possibility that Trump and his team simply have no idea what they're doing should not, however, be dismissed out of hand. The fat of the matter is this is the only real crisis we've had occasion to see Trump try to wrestle with, and it's been a total fiasco - with a high human cost."

The Trump administration did not adequately gear up ahead of the storm when they knew it was coming. The relief effort was paltry and rife with incompetence or worse. Trump blamed Puerto Ricans for not recovering from Maria by themselves. He seemed to think throwing a few rolls of "beautiful soft" paper towels at people in Puerto Rico after Maria would make all the difference.

More people are researching to determine more precisely how many people died in Puerto Rico due to Maria and the U.S. government's paltry response.

George Washington University is also conducting an independent review to determine the number of Maria-related deaths in Puerto Rico. The results of that study were due out in May, says the AP, but the research team asked for and received more time to complete the study.

I hope more research does shed more light on this travesty, and if people in the Trump administration didn't do enough, let's hold them to account.

At Least Trump Got Us Thinking About Post-Maria Puerto Rico Again

Somebody wrote "HELP" on the roof of this hurricane-
ravaged building in Puerto Rico

Say what you want about Donald Trump's mean tweets about Puerto Rico that he rattled off Thursday morning: He did get us thinking about Puerto Rico and its struggling recovery from Hurricane Maria.

Which is a good thing, since there's a humanitarian crisis continuing in Puerto Rico and we should be thinking about it.

In case you missed it, Trump said this:

"We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever."

Never mind that it's only been three weeks since Category 4 Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico, that food is not getting to some people yet, that 40 percent of the population has no good access to clean drinking water, and 85 percent or so of the  island still does not have electricity.

Not to mention Puerto Ricans are American citizens and need the same kind of help we afford other people caught up in national disasters.

FEMA usually helps with disasters long term. As CNN notes, FEMA is still involved in recovery from Hurricane Katrina (2005) Hurricanes Ike and Gustav and Iowa floods (all 2008) Vermont and New York's own Hurricane Irene (2011) and many other disasters dating back two to ten years.

So why the rush to get out of Puerto Rico, Mr. President?

Many disasters that have afflicted the nation this year. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The ongoing California fires (death toll 31 and rising) and a Denver area hailstorm in May ($2.1 billion in damage)

But Hurricane Maria is surely the worst disaster of the year for us, especially in terms of the death toll.  Official counts put the number of deaths from Maria in Puerto Rico so far at 45. That's bad, but doesn't seem as awful as some huge calamaties.

Yet, I'm sure - and a lot of experts agree - that we'll learn the Puerto Rican death toll is much higher. And will continue to climb due to a faulty relief effort. One analysis by Vox estimated the death toll there at 450 so far.

Of course, it's tricky to get an accurate count of deaths caused by the aftermath of the storm. Are people dying for lack of good water and adequate food? Most healthy people can survive temporary food shortages, but people who were sick to begin with can't. How do we determine if they died from the disaster and its aftermath or from natural causes?

That's being picky. Because surely people are dying in Puerto Rico who wouldn't have had they gotten aid fast enough. One death is too many. We have to wonder how many are dying. Scary.

In any event, Vox says some members of Congress want an audit of Maria deaths in Puerto Rico to get a more accurate view of the cope of this crisis.

Aid, especially to the interior of Puerto Rico is shockingly inadequate.

The New York Times said dialysis patients have had their treatments cut back for lack of electricity, putting these people in mortal danger. People are also getting sick and even dying of water-borne diseases.

The hospital ship U.S.S. Comfort is docked in San Juan harbor, but few people have been airlifted there. As of Wednesday, only seve people were being treated on the ship, which  has a capacity for 250 patients.

On top of all this, it seems plenty of food and water is making it to Puerto Rico at the moment, but not all of it is being distributed to the people who most need it.

Blocked, wrecked roads, poor communication, no electricity and a host of other factors are keeping relief from people, especially in remote areas.

Let's keep the pressure on the administration to stay with Puerto Rico as long as it takes to get the territory completely back on its feet. We can't rely on Trump to accidentally and temporarily put our focus there. We have to do it ourselves, in a sustained way.

Puerto Rico, Aid, Trump, Heat And Politics #&*%ing Me Off

Desperate message written on a Puerto
Rican intersection after Maria.
The words under the SOS read
"We need water and food."

This is going to be a political kinda weather post, because I'm pissed off today.

Pissed off, because we've just spent three days yelling and screaming about whether NFL players should kneel during the National Anthem, all because Donald Trump forced the issue with his whines.

What those NFL players are protesting is racial injustice. No question, that's very important.

But we have a weather-related crisis going on now. In the United States. Involving Americans who are in very deep shit and so, so need our help.

As we know, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last week. Some humanitarian aid is flowing in, but the response has been anemic and totally in adequate. Remember, Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

There's no power. No water. More people are going to die in Puerto Rico from the lack of an emergency response than the storm itself. Trump and the rest of the government should be throwing everything they can at Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Instead, Trump complains about kneeling NFL players.

When he finally deigns to bring up Puerto Rico, it's to complain about its bad infrastructure. It's financial mismanagement over the past decade or two.

Forget that, dammit! There are people dying. We should have the island of Puerto Rico ringed with Navy ships, all tossing out food, generators, water, electrical repair crews and everything else.

I hope this isn't because the people of Puerto Rico are too Hispanic-ish for some people's taste.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yuliz Cruz said this to CBS News:

"Its life or death......People are starting to die already. We need to get our shit together because people are dying. People are really dying. I've put them in ambulances when they're gasping for air."

I suppose that as of today, there are some early signs of Washington getting its shit together, prodded by activists, some Senators who have got Puerto Rico's back and an increasingly hostile press. It shouldn't take that to get aid to the island.

I know, I know, we're already dealing with Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida, so it's hard to deal with a third major blow. And relief efforts never go without a hitch. But come on, let's get real with Puerto Rico, OK?

Another thing: I'm writing this in late September in far northern Vermont. I can see Canada from my house. Literally.

And the temperature is heading toward 90 for the third day in a row. The temperatures are shattering long-held records. It's oppressively humid. I'm sweating like hell.

This at a time of year that I should be wrapped in fleece and wondering what to do with my frost-bitten tomato plants. This heat wave is unprecedented for Vermont. Much like the 70 degree weather we had in February. And the 70 degree weather we had on Christmas Eve, 2015.

Yes, I get it. The weather always goes off the rails occasionally. And, in terms of Harvey, Irma, and Maria, there have always been big hurricanes and global warming did not "cause" the three huge hurricanes.

But let's get real. I always say it's hard to tease out exactly if and how global warming affected individual weather events, and that's still true.

However, the hurricanes, and the Vermont heat wave, and other strange weather events in recent years have the fingerprints of global warming all over them. The unusually hot ocean water made the hurricanes stronger than they otherwise would have been.

The downpours of Harvey in Texas probably would have been just a bit less intense had there not been more heat in the atmosphere, which can hold more water, which can unleash heavier downpours.

Vermont has always had warm spells in the autumn. But not like this. Perhaps in past decades, it would have been hot today in the Green Mountain State, but not like this.

Yet, we have a U.S. government led by Trump and other people that say global warming is totally imaginary - a conspiracy cooked up by China to ruin our economy, liberals who want to take freedom away from the rest of us, and scientists who want to fleece the government.

If you believe those conspiracies, I've got a hurricane-ravaged island in the Caribbean I can sell you.

The science is settled on this. The politics is not. With the fossil fuel industry and their minions funneling money to the climate deniers in Washington, we're getting no action on this. Just like Puerto Rico is not getting any action in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

I've always been taught that America is a can-do nation. We work incredibly hard. We're amazing innovators. When there's a crisis, we solve it. (My late World War II veteran father was part of the Greatest Generation, and I could see this greatness in him.)

I believe all this remains true about America. We are smart and hard working enough to lead the world out of the threat of global warming through inventiveness, guile, hard work and our culture of freedom and entrepreneurship.

Donald Trump keeps telling us he's going to make America great again. But he and his minions are doing the opposite through inaction in crises from Maria to climate change. I just wish he'd get out of the way and let the rest of us Americans get the jobs that need to get done get done.

Donald Trump wants to divide us for his own personal gain. Millions of Americans want to unite us to make an already great America even better.

Puerto Rico and the rest of the world who are already feeling the effects of climate change are asking: Which will it be?