Only 64 people died in Hurricane Maria
| Only 64 people died in Hurricane Maria | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Hurricane Maria killed only 64 people in Puerto Rico in 2017; higher death tolls were invented for political reasons." | |
| Domain | Disasters & Emergencies |
| Tactic | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion Propaganda Technique |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2017 |
| Origin | Puerto Rico's official death count after the storm; later defended by President Donald Trump, who said in September 2018 that 3,000 people did not die |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on Disasters & Emergencies | |
Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017, knocking out power to the entire island for months. The government's official death toll stood at 64 for nearly a year. Independent studies found that thousands more people died in the months after the storm, many because of lost power, medical care and clean water. In 2018 Puerto Rico adopted an estimate of 2,975 deaths.
The claim
The low figure was cited as evidence of an effective response. In September 2018 President Trump wrote that 3,000 people did not die and said Democrats had inflated the number.
What the evidence shows
- Narrow counting. The official tally counted mainly deaths directly attributed to the storm on death certificates.
- Excess deaths. A study commissioned by Puerto Rico's government and conducted by George Washington University estimated 2,975 excess deaths from September 2017 to February 2018. A Harvard-led survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine gave a higher estimate.
- Official adoption. The governor accepted the 2,975 figure in August 2018.
Sources
- Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Ascertainment of the Estimated Excess Mortality from Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, August 2018.
- Nishant Kishore et al., "Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria," New England Journal of Medicine 379 (2018).