U.S. President Donald Trump is rejecting the widely accepted death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, claiming without evidence that “3,000 people did not die.” He also called the count a move by Democrats to make him look bad.
Trump made the comments Thursday on Twitter as Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas.
3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000…
—@realDonaldTrump
…..This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!
—@realDonaldTrump
Last month, Puerto Rico’s governor raised the U.S. territory’s official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2,975, after an independent study found the number of people who succumbed in the aftermath had been severely undercounted.
San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz responded to Trump’s comments Thursday morning in a series of messages on Twitter.
This is what denial following neglect looks like: Mr Pres in the real world people died on your watch. YOUR LACK OF RESPECT IS APPALLING! <a href=”https://t.co/OJEDqT74Sr”>pic.twitter.com/OJEDqT74Sr</a>
—@CarmenYulinCruz
Damn it: this is NOT about politics this was always about SAVING LIVES. <a href=”https://t.co/SjwywKN3Jh”>pic.twitter.com/SjwywKN3Jh</a>
—@CarmenYulinCruz
The estimate of nearly 3,000 dead in the six months after Maria devastated the island in September 2017 and knocked out the entire electrical grid was made by researchers with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
The study says the original estimates were so low because doctors on the island had not been trained to properly classify deaths after a natural disaster.
The elderly and impoverished were hardest hit by the hurricane.
Cars drive under a partially collapsed utility pole weeks after Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria last September. (Alvin Baez/Reuters)
With files from CBC News