Destroyed homes sit surrounded by debris from Hurricane Maria in this aerial photograph taken above La Perla in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (Photo: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) – Some 1,139 people are likely to have perished after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, far more than the official death count of 64, according to a Pennsylvania State University study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study underscores the extent to which President Donald Trump initially underestimated the tragedy during an Oct. 3 visit when he compared it favorably to "a real catastrophe like Katrina," the storm that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, because the official death toll was less than 20 at the time. The report also suggests that 680 of the deaths occurred in October and November as much of the island remained without electricity.
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