Hurricane Maria

[waltky]

Dam about to burst in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria...

Puerto Rico dam failure 'imminent' after Hurricane Maria
22 Sept.`17 - A failing dam is causing "extremely dangerous" flooding on a Puerto Rico river in the wake of Hurricane Maria, authorities say. The National Weather Service (NWS) said the "imminent failure" of the Guajataca Dam is a "life-threatening situation".

More than 70,000 people live in the nearby areas of Isabela and Quebradillas. At least 13 people have died since Maria ripped through Puerto Rico, knocking out power to the whole island. Operators of the Guajataca Dam said the structure, at the northern end of Lake Guajataca in northwest Puerto Rico, began to show signs of failing at 14:10 local time (18:10 GMT). It sparked a flash flood emergency for Isabela and Quebradillas municipalities, the NWS said in a series of tweets. The agency urged residents in the area to "move to higher ground now" in an alert posted on its website. Many who live near the dam are being evacuated by buses.

A 3D render from Google earth showing Guajataca dam. Inset, top right, is map of Puerto Rico showing the considerable distance from San Juan to the region - almost on opposite sides of the country​

It is expected to head to the northeast and east of the Bahamas over the weekend, forecasters say. Puerto Rico's governor has called Maria the worst hurricane in a century. Ricardo Rossello says it could take months to restore electricity to all 3.4 million of the US island territory's residents. Roofs were ripped off as 140mph (225km/h) winds battered Puerto Rico's capital city, San Juan. The hurricane has claimed more than 30 lives across the region, and is the second devastating storm to hit the Caribbean this hurricane season.

The first was category five Irma earlier in September. Maria also caused widespread destruction on the small island of Dominica when it hit on Monday night, leaving at least 15 dead and 20 missing. US President Donald Trump has pledged to visit Puerto Rico, saying it was "totally obliterated" by the storm. He has yet to declare the island a disaster area, but has made federal emergency aid available.

Failing Puerto Rico dam sparks evacuation

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Failing dam poses new crisis on Puerto Rico amid flooding from Hurricane Maria
23 Sept.`17 - Emergency officials in Puerto Rico raced on Saturday to evacuate tens of thousands of people from a river valley below a dam in the island’s northwest on the verge of collapse under the weight of flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

The potential calamity was unfolding even as Puerto Ricans struggled without electricity to clean up and dig out from devastation left days earlier by Maria, which has killed at least 25 people across the Caribbean, according to officials and media reports. Some 70,000 people live in a cluster of communities under evacuation downstream from the earthen dam on the rain-swollen Guajataca River, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a late-afternoon news conference on Friday. Residents of the area were being ferried to higher ground in buses, according to bulletins issued by the National Weather Service from its office in San Juan, the capital of the U.S. island territory.

Christina Villalba, an official for the island’s emergency management agency, said there was little doubt the dam was about to break. “It could be tonight, it could be tomorrow, it could be in the next few days, but it’s very likely it will be soon,” she told Reuters by telephone on Friday night. She said authorities aimed to complete evacuations within hours. Governor Ricardo Rossello went to the municipality of Isabela on Friday night and told mayor Carlos Delgado that an evacuation there was urgent, his office said in a statement. Rossello said the rains sparked by Maria had cracked the dam and could cause fatal flooding.

Puerto Rico’s national guard had been mobilized to help the police evacuate all necessary areas, Rossello said. People had begun leaving nearby areas, but one small community was refusing and Rossello instructed the police to step in under a law that mandated them to remove the local population in an emergency, the statement said. Villalba could not say how many people had already been evacuated, or how authorities were communicating with residents to organize the evacuation.

PATH OF DESTRUCTION

 

[waltky]

Hurricane destruction in Puerto Rico...

Whole of Puerto Rico without power, water, phone services
Monday 25th September, 2017 - Ravaged by Hurricane Irma earlier this month, and by Hurricane Maria last week - the entire population of Puerto Rico is facing a crisis situation.

With water, electricity and telephone services being knocked out for the entire island and officials saying it could take months to be restored - on Saturday, shipments of food, water and generators began arriving at the main port in San Juan, which has reopened. With at least 13 people being killed since Maria ripped through Puerto Rico, the island is facing yet another problem with a dam that remains in danger of collapsing. On Friday, operators said that the Guajataca Dam, at the northern end of Lake Guajataca in the north-west, began to show signs of failing at 14:10 local time (18:10 GMT). Then, on Saturday, the NWS warned of flash flooding in Isabela and Quebradillas areas. In an alert posted on its website, the agency first urged residents to move to higher ground.

About 70,000 residents in the areas under threat were initially told to flee and now officials have said that there are reports that the evacuation zone has since been narrowed. The National Weather Service (NWS) has extended flash flood warnings for two areas downstream of Guajataca Dam. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said on Twitter that he had assessed the damage to the dam by flying over the area. He further reiterated an earlier call from the authorities for local residents to leave their homes. Officials also said that fallen trees are blocking main highways, whole neighbourhoods remain flooded and many homes are without roofs. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have said that they will take satellite phones to towns and cities which have been cut off as the telephone masts across the island have been damaged.

Earlier, Rossello called Maria the worst hurricane in a century, warning it could take months to restore electricity to all 3.4 million of the U.S. island territory's residents. In its latest update, the National Hurricane Center has said that Maria, a category three storm with maximum sustained winds of nearly 185km/h (115mph), was about 1,030km south-south east from Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. The NHC said, "On the forecast track, Maria should move away from the Bahamas into the open waters of the western Atlantic today.”

So far, the hurricane has claimed more than 33 lives across the region. It is the second devastating storm to hit the Caribbean this hurricane season. Earlier in September, the first storm was the category five Irma. On Monday, Maria caused widespread destruction on the small island of Dominica, leaving at least 15 dead and 20 missing. The storm is now heading to the open waters of the west Atlantic. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump, who declared the island a disaster area and made federal emergency aid available, pledged to visit Puerto Rico, saying it was "totally obliterated" by the storm.

Whole of Puerto Rico without power water phone services

 

[Desperado]

So let alternative energy prove itself. Now would be a great time for solar power generators

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - it's cause o' all dat climate change...

September is the most energetic month for hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic
September 26,`17 - The 2017 hurricane season has certainly been one for the record books. Whether it be Harvey’s scale-tipping rains, Irma’s off-the-chart winds, or the sheer number of storms that have spun up, this year is clearly anything but normal.

But how wacky has the weather in the tropics been? For that, meteorologists refer to a figure known as ACE, a measure of every hurricane’s energy put together during its life span. September produced the most ACE in any month on record in the Atlantic Ocean. ACE, or Accumulated Cyclone Energy, is manifest in stirred-up oceans, steamy downpours, crackling lightning and ferocious winds. The force to instigate these nasty conditions is extracted from the roasting waters of the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean, and transformed into motion through a hurricane’s natural “heat engine.” To quantify this measure, scientists take into account the strength of the winds within each and every storm, as well as their duration. ACE is calculated every six hours, and a running tally is kept for each storm so long as it sticks around. The measure does not take into account a storm’s size.

In a given year, ACE across the Atlantic Basin stacks up to an average in the 90s. It’s not terribly unusual for ACE to rise into the triple digits, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration classifies any season that tops 111 as “above average.” On Monday, Phil Klotzbach, a tropical weather research at Colorado State University, tweeted that ACE in the Atlantic had soared to 155.4 for the month of September so far, a new record for any month. It ousted September 2004 as the previous record holder. This September’s ACE is more than we would see in the entirety of what’s considered an extremely active season. Considering the entire season’s hurricane activity, 2017’s ACE already ranks in the top 10 most on record. Thus far, we’re up to the high 180s, with about two months left in hurricane season.

Hurricane Maria​

Even with the forecast drop-off of cyclone activity over the next few weeks, we still may approach record territory. 2005 boasted the most ACE of a given season, topping the charts at 250. ACE in the Pacific tends to be about 30 percent higher as a result of the size of the ocean and the greater number of storms that accordingly form. Even the individual storms this season have been in the realm of records. Consider Irma: Its ACE totaled 66.6 over the hurricane’s 13-day lifetime. This is more than two-thirds the typical ACE of an entire season. Only one or two storms have ever drawn up more energy as reported by the ACE model — Category 5 Ivan in 2004 at 70.4, and possibly the San Ciriaco hurricane of 1899. The latter, known as the longest-lived Atlantic hurricane on record, spun at hurricane status for a whopping 23 days. That storm lay siege to Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas, killing more than 3,000 people. That storm’s ACE has been estimated at 73.6.

Klotzbach also listed another important figure that can serve as an indicator of cyclone activity, known as “hurricane days.” This is a simple sum of the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic on a given day. If there were two hurricanes in the ocean on one day, that would count for two “hurricane days.” Between Lee, Maria, Jose, Katia and Irma, September 2017 has generated 35 hurricane days, a record. Klotzbach stated that September 1926 had held the top spot before at 34.5 but said this may be underestimated because of the lack of satellites in that era. No matter how you slice it, it has already been a devastating hurricane season that ranks among the most extreme in history. Fortunately, the tropics are expected to calm down over next couple of weeks.

Analysis | September is the most energetic month for hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic

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Why This Hurricane Season Is So Intense
Sept. 19, 2017 - Warm ocean waters, weak winds and hot air are conspiring to feed frequent and ferocious storms

The most severe hurricane season in almost a decade is stoked by warmer-than-average Atlantic Ocean currents, weak westerly Pacific winds and turbulent hot tropical air over the Indian Ocean, with no sign conditions will slacken soon, climate analysts and meteorologists say. “It’s the trifecta,” said atmospheric scientist Jeff Weber, who studies tropical meteorology and climate change at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “The atmospheric conditions are ideal for hurricane formations.”

So far, the Atlantic hurricane season has spawned 13 named storms and seven hurricanes. An average season, which runs from June through November, typically produces a dozen named storms, with six reaching hurricane strength. Formally rated a Category 5 hurricane, the Maria storm system powered winds up to 160 miles an hour toward the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Monday, while Hurricane Jose, downgraded from its peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane to a Category 1 system, churned off the eastern seaboard with winds up to 75 miles an hour. Three factors are fueling such intensity, experts say.

Satellite images of hurricanes Jose, top, and Maria this week. Scientists say a confluence of factors are behind this year’s unusually active storm season in the Atlantic.​

Warm Atlantic water—running two degrees Fahrenheit or so warmer than usual—is the engine that drives these storm systems and boosts their capacity to store more water vapor that can condense into torrential rains. At the same time, weakening winds from the Pacific have reduced the wind shear that normally saps the strength of developing Atlantic storms. “That is a huge, huge player,” said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And over the Indian Ocean—far from the scene of the devastation in the U.S. and Caribbean—a tropical rainfall system called the Madden-Julian Oscillation is triggering the formation of the seeds of severe Atlantic storm systems. Its hot, roiling air spins off small atmospheric disruptions that drift across Africa and, under the right conditions, can develop into the beginnings of destructive Atlantic storms. “Right now we are at the peak of a very active season,” said Dr. Bell, “We know there will be more storms—not just more storms forming but more storms threatening” populated areas, he said.

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What was Hurricane Maria's real death toll in Puerto Rico?...

What was Hurricane Maria's real death toll in Puerto Rico
Nov 20, 2017 - People on this part of the island knew Quintín Vidal Rolón for two things: his white cowboy hat, which he seemed to wear every day of his 89-year life; and his beat-up Ford pickup truck, which he'd been driving for at least 50 years.

It was in that 1962 truck, and wearing that hat, that Vidal spent his days zipping around the mountainous back roads of Cayey, Puerto Rico. He sold hardware from the wooden bed of the pickup. And he used those tools, and a lifetime of sweat, to build houses -- always in concrete. Like him, the material was nothing if not consistent. It was strong enough to stand up to a storm, he told clients and family members. Don't trust anything less durable.

After Hurricane Maria slammed into this US territory on September 20, peeling roofs from wooden homes and amputating branches from trees, the community turned again to Vidal. No one can say exactly how many people survived the storm in the hard-cast structures he helped construct for them, often at little or no cost. But it's likely hundreds, his family said. The man who would have been 90 years old in February survived the storm at home alone. Shortly after, he was seen by neighbors clearing debris from roads and flooded houses.

It was the aftermath of the hurricane that would prove fatal. No one thought much of the lantern at first. Some neighbors noticed the oil-powered flame flickering in Vidal's living room. He'd started using it after the storm hit -- a light he lit at dusk, as the coquí frogs began their chorus. Maria's winds had toppled power lines like toothpicks in Cayey; and power service in the town, like on much of the island, has been slow to return amid a government response widely described as inadequate. Only 10% of people here have power today, said Mayor Rolando Ortiz. Vidal needed a way to see in the dark.

It was October 20, one month after the storm, when the neighbors smelled smoke. Daisy Lamboy stood on her roof, straining to find cellular signal to call emergency responders. Margarita León busted through Vidal's window, releasing a mushroom of heat. It was too late. Vidal's charred remains were found in a blackened "hellscape," as one relative described it -- a scene so otherworldly, and so seemingly unnecessary, that one firefighter, Vidal's nephew, fainted.

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[waltky]

No oversight over FEMA's Hurricane Maria response...

FEMA's response to Hurricane Maria won't get initial review under watchdog agency's new approach
March 16, 2018 | WASHINGTON — With FEMA facing its deepest scrutiny in more than a decade, the government watchdog in charge of measuring the agency's performance is no longer assessing its initial response to disasters.

The decision by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General to no longer issue preliminary reports comes as the watchdog took the extraordinary step last week of pulling a dozen largely positive assessments of the Obama administration's initial response to several disasters. Acting DHS Inspector General John V. Kelly said the reports, pulled last week from the IG's web site, didn't meet proper standards for a government audit. "We were not confident that the evidence collected (in those reports) was necessary to support the conclusion," Kelly said in an interview Thursday. "It doesn't mean the conclusion was wrong (but) our standard is that it has to be adequately supported. You can't say something without having the evidence even if it's true."

The Federal Emergency Management Administration, or FEMA, is a division of the Department of Homeland Security. Instead of initial reports, the agency will adopt a model that provides "real-time feedback" to FEMA about its response to disasters based on observations on the ground rather than reviews that come out months after a recovery begins, Arlen Morales, a spokeswoman for the IG's office wrote in an email. "This work does not lend itself well to a traditional audit following Government Auditing Standards. Nevertheless, the work is critically important," she wrote. "By following standards that better suit the work, we can better accomplish the objective of the work— namely, to provide timely feedback to FEMA on issues before they become multi-million dollar problems."

The change means the watchdog won't be issuing a public assessment of FEMA's preliminary efforts to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria, a devastating, category 4 storm that left much of the island without power and other basic necessities for months. Nearly 200,000 families and businesses in Puerto Rico — 16% of the U.S. territory — remain without power. The island faces a growing mental health crisis as people wrestle with their losses from the storm. And FEMA is answering tough questions about bungled contracts in its recovery effort.

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[waltky]

100,000 still w/o power in Puerto Rico 6 months after hurricane...

'The job is not done': Puerto Rico's needs go unmet 6 months after Maria
20 Mar.`18 Generators are still humming. Candles are still flickering. Homes are still being repaired.

Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria exactly six months ago, and the U.S. territory is still struggling to recover from the strongest storm to hit the island in nearly a century. "There are a lot of people with needs," said Levid Ortiz, operating director of PR4PR, a local nonprofit that helps impoverished communities across the island. "It shouldn't be like this. We should already be back on our feet." Some 250 Puerto Ricans formed a line around him on a recent weekday, standing for more than two hours to receive bottles of water and a box of food at a public basketball court in the mountain town of Corozal. Many of those waiting were still without power, including 23-year-old Keishla Quiles, a single mother with a 4-year-old son who still buys ice every day to fill a cooler to keep milk and other goods cold amid rising temperatures. "Since we're a family of few resources, we have not been able to afford a generator," she said. "It's been hard living like this."

Crews already have restored water to 99 percent of clients and power to 93 percent of customers, but more than 100,000 of them still remain in the dark and there are frequent power outages. Justo Gonzalez, interim director for Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority, said he expects the entire island to have power by May, eight months after the Category 4 storm destroyed two-thirds of the island's power distribution system — and just as the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season is about to start. Gonzalez also pledged to inspect dozens of wooden and cement poles still leaning haphazardly across the island after a wooden telephone pole fell on a car. It killed an elderly couple on Sunday as they returned from a town fair in the mountains of western Puerto Rico. The deaths of Luis Beltran, 62, and Rosa Bosque, 60, have angered Puerto Ricans and raised concerns about the safety of people as they recover from the hurricane. "It worries me because ... it can happen anywhere," Mayor Edwin Soto told The Associated Press, adding that crews were going to inspect poles across the mountain town of Las Marias to ensure they are in good condition.

Beltran's youngest sister, Migdalia Beltran, said her brother was living in New Jersey when Hurricane Maria hit, but that he moved back three months ago to be with family. "He was No. 1," she said as her voice cracked and she began to cry. "He was the one who gave me support to keep going." The storm caused an estimated $100 billion in damage, killed dozens of people and damaged or destroyed nearly 400,000 homes, according to Puerto Rico's government. In the six months since the hurricane, more than 135,000 people have fled to the U.S. mainland, according to a recent estimate by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York. More than 40 percent of them settled in Florida, followed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, the study found. Meanwhile, those who stayed behind say they need more help.

The AP recently found that of the $23 billion pledged for Puerto Rico, only $1.27 billion for a nutritional assistance program has been disbursed, along with more than $430 million to repair public infrastructure. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency also has spent more than $6 billion from its standing emergency fund. Tom Bossert, U.S. President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser, said Tuesday that Puerto Rico would soon receive another $10 billion for various restoration efforts. "We're going to redouble our efforts to work as fast as we can on their behalf," he said of Puerto Ricans during a three-day visit to the island. However, he said the administration of Gov. Ricardo Rossello needs to come up with a plan on how to rebuild a stronger power grid and create financial accounting methods to ensure federal funds are being appropriately spent. "It makes no sense for the people of the United States to continue to pay money for repetitive loss in these disasters."

He also said federal hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico have exceeded his expectations. "That doesn't mean I'm satisfied. It doesn't mean the president is satisfied," Bossert said. "We still have some challenges." Meanwhile, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources issued a letter on Friday demanding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers explain why it is reducing the number of crews helping restore power when there are still people who remain in the dark. "While we recognize that much progress has been made in restoring power to the majority of customers, the job is not done," the letter stated. Col. Jason Kirk, who is overseeing power restoration efforts for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Tuesday that Puerto Rico's power company will be primarily responsible for restoring electricity to remaining customers.

'The job is not done': Puerto Rico's needs go unmet 6 months after Maria

 

[waltky]

$90B worth of damage in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria...

Hurricane Maria caused $90B of damage in Puerto Rico
April 9, 2018 -- Hurricane Maria caused an estimated $90 billion in damage in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the National Hurricane Center said Monday.

As part of its final assessment of the storm, the NHC said Hurricane Maria was the most destructive hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in modern times and the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history behind Katrina and Harvey. The NHC said the price tag had a 90 percent certainty. "The combined destructive power of storm surge and wave action from Maria produced extensive damage to buildings, homes and roads along the east and southeast coast of Puerto Rico as well as the south coasts of Vieques and St. Croix," the NHC said.

Hurricane Maria caused $90 billion worth of damage in Puerto Rico, making it the third costliest storm in U.S. history.​

Maria also knocked down 80 percent of Puerto Rico's utility poles and all transmission lines, resulting in loss of power to essentially all of the island's 3.4 million residents. Nearly all cellphone and municipal water supplies also were knocked out. The NHC reported the official death count stands at 65, but said the number could increase following further investigation. "It should be noted that hundreds of additional indirect deaths in Puerto Rico may eventually be attributed to Maria's aftermath pending the results of an official government review," the center said.

Maria achieved a peak wind intensity of 172 mph and its 74 mph increase in intensity within 24 hours on Sept. 18 made it the sixth-fastest intensifying hurricane in the Atlantic basin record. The hurricane also generated storm surge at maximum inundation levels of 6 feet to 9 feet above ground level along the coasts of Puerto Rico's Humacao, Naguabo and Ceiba municipalities. Heavy rains brought on by Maria caused heavy flooding as river discharges at many locations in the island were at record or near-record levels and one location in Puerto Rico experienced a storm total of nearly 38 inches of rainwater.

Hurricane Maria caused $90B of damage in Puerto Rico

 

[waltky]

Judge orders further extension of aid to Puerto Rico Maria evacuees...

Judge orders further extension of aid to Puerto Rico storm evacuees
AUGUST 1, 2018 - A federal judge on Wednesday extended until Aug. 31 an order preventing the eviction of hundreds of Puerto Rican families who fled the hurricane-ravaged island in 2017 and have been living in hotels and motels across the United States.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Hillman in Worcester, Massachusetts, issued the order after hearing arguments over whether he should issue a longer-term injunction barring the federal government from cutting off housing assistance to people who were forced to leave their homes because of Hurricane Maria. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had planned to end the assistance program on June 30. Hillman’s decision on Wednesday extended a previously-imposed temporary restraining order that allowed the families to remain in hotels until checkout time on Aug. 7.

Hillman extended the order to allow the government time to respond to new arguments raised by lawyers representing evacuees in a proposed class action challenging FEMA’s actions. “It’s going to take us time sort through this,” he said. Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 20 with winds close to 150 miles per hour (240 kph), causing an estimated $90 billion in damage to the already economically struggling U.S. territory.

According to FEMA, 1,040 families displaced by Maria are currently receiving aid under a program that pays for hotel lodging. In total, the program has since its launch helped 7,032 families displaced by Maria, FEMA said. Critics have said the federal government responded poorly to the disaster and provided inadequate aid. They contend that President Donald Trump’s administration viewed Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens, a claim it denies. Four Puerto Ricans are pursuing the lawsuit, which was filed in June and contends that FEMA’s actions violate their due process rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Lawyers for the displaced Puerto Ricans argued in court that FEMA is legally obligated to continue to provide assistance to the evacuees, who they contend face potential homelessness if the program is prematurely ended without providing other assistance.
“They have no place to go back to, and what they’re seeking is assistance from the agency that already promised to give it to them,” said Natasha Bannan, an attorney with the advocacy organization LatinoJustice PRLDEF. But Danielle Wolfson Young, a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department representing FEMA, argued that the families had no right to continued assistance. “FEMA has the discretion to implement and also to determine when to end the program,” she said.

Obama dips into midterm election with first endorsements

 

[waltky]

Prob'ly has taken this long to account for all the missing & dead...

Puerto Rico Concedes Hurricane Maria Deaths Were More Than 1,400
8/09/2018 - Officials previously reported just 64 deaths from last year’s powerful storm.

Puerto Rico has conceded that Hurricane Maria killed more than 1,400 people on the island last year and not just the 64 in the official death toll. The government acknowledged the higher death toll with no fanfare in a report submitted to Congress this week in which it detailed a $139 billion reconstruction plan for the island. That quiet acknowledgement was first reported Thursday by The New York Times.

A man wades on the water while pushing his bicycle through a flooded street in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Catano, Puerto Rico on September 22, 2017.​

Puerto Rican officials have admitted that more than 64 people likely died from the powerful storm that knocked out the power grid and caused widespread flooding that made many roads impassable. But a more exact number has been a matter of debate that the government has sought to end by commissioning an academic study due out in coming weeks.

Puerto Rico Concedes Hurricane Maria Deaths Were More Than 1,400 | HuffPost