{"id":17613,"date":"2018-09-13T13:38:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T13:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allworldsnews.com\/worlds\/trump-disputes-puerto-rico-hurricane-death-toll\/55"},"modified":"2018-09-13T13:38:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T13:38:55","slug":"trump-disputes-puerto-rico-hurricane-death-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/?p=17613","title":{"rendered":"Trump disputes Puerto Rico hurricane death toll"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A Image copyright AFP\/Getty Image caption The US territory has asked Congress for $139bn in recovery funds <\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump is disputing that nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico after the island was hit by two hurricanes last year.<\/p>\n

“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, without offering evidence for the claim.<\/p>\n

He added that Democrats had inflated the official death toll to “make me look as bad as possible”.<\/p>\n

The official figure was released last month after an independent study.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Mr Trump wrote in a pair of tweets that Democrats were attacking him “when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Where does the official death toll come from?<\/h2>\n

A George Washington University study in July found that 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria, which struck the island territory in September 2017.<\/p>\n

The governor of Puerto Rico, who commissioned the research, said he accepted the estimate as official.<\/p>\n

The study concluded that the initial death toll of 64 only included those killed directly by hurricanes Maria and Irma – either by drowning, flying debris or building collapse.<\/p>\n

George Washington University also counted those who died in the six months following the storm as a result of poor healthcare provision and a lack of electricity and clean water. <\/p>\n

Puerto Rico hurricane death toll jumps Anger at Trump Puerto Rico ‘success’ claim <\/p>\n

Repeated power cuts also led to an increased number of deaths from diabetes and sepsis.<\/p>\n

US hurricane a looming ‘disaster’<\/p>\n

Last May, Harvard University public health researchers estimated the death toll was even higher.<\/p>\n

They said about 4,600 people died in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the hurricane from delayed medical care.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
Media playback is unsupported on your device<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Media captionMonths after Maria, many on this US island still suffered in the dark <\/p>\n

What have Puerto Rican officials said?<\/h2>\n

In response, the Mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, tweeted: “Mr Trump you can try and bully us with your tweets BUT WE KNOW OUR LIVES MATTER.”<\/p>\n

“You will never take away our self respect. Shame on you!” <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, after Mr Trump hailed the US response in Puerto Rico as “tremendous” and “an incredible, unsung success”.<\/p>\n

Ms Cruz shot back: “If he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success God help us all.”<\/p>\n

Last month she described Mr Trump’s handling of Maria as a “stain on his presidency”. <\/p>\n

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosello said in a statement this week that Maria was “the worst natural disaster in our modern history.<\/p>\n

“Our basic infrastructure was devastated, thousands of our people lost their lives and many others still struggle.”<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the US, is home to some 3.3 million people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n