Trump denies the loss of life from the 2 tropical storms that hit Puerto Rico and pointed the finger at Democrats for the number, saying it was increased “in order to make me look as bad as possible.”
President Donald Trump suggested the official loss of life in Puerto Rico after a year ago’s tropical storms weren’t right. Senator Ricardo Rosselló, reconsidered the quantity of fatalities from Hurricane Maria to 2,975.
Trump tweeted, “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…”
His defiant rejection of the widely accepted count infuriated the island’s leadership and even some Republican leaders in Congress.
Initial losses of life for Maria were set at 64, yet numerous observers expressed doubts at that number as the region’s therapeutic and transportation infrastructure was insufficiently prepared for the storm.
The island’s governor formally raised the death toll from Hurricane Maria to an estimated 2,975 from 64 following a study conducted by researchers at George Washington University, which incorporated the longer-term effects of the natural disaster, such as low-income residents and elderly people who didn’t have access to adequate food, water, and other resources to begin with.
Trump is apparently disregarding the aftereffects of the storm in his tweet and focusing just on deaths attributable from things like flying debris, drowning and structures that collapse. During his visit to the island on Oct. 3, 2017, when the loss of life was estimated to be 16, Trump had suggested that Puerto Rico were lucky Hurricane Maria wasn’t a “real catastrophe” like 2005′s Hurricane Katrina.
Independent investigations conducted separately by The New York Times, Penn State University and Harvard University also estimated Maria’s death toll to be in the thousands. Puerto Rican officials have said they expected the death toll to be higher than 64, which they initially estimated using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention methodology, according to a statement released by Puerto Rico’s Department of Public Safety in August.
Some students here at Cabrini have expressed their thoughts on this subject.
“I think he [Trump] was trying to cover it up so that people wouldn’t be scared of the high number of deaths caused by the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” Behn Worley, a undeclared major student, said
Alexis Goldsteins, a criminology and sociology student, said, “It’s disgusting for him to flat out deny the deaths of those caused from the hurricanes. It infuriated me when I saw his tweets.”
