ACCOUNTABILITY

Trump Administration Stands by Hurricane Maria Response Despite Huge Death Toll

After a new study found nearly 3,000 people died, not 64 as officials had claimed.

The Trump administration is standing by its response to Hurricane Maria despite new figures that reveal nearly 3,000 people—not 64—died in the Category 5 storm last September. Trump faced criticism at the time for his “slow and inadequate” response to the devastating hurricane—the president of Oxfam America said she was “outraged” by how the administration handled the disaster. New figures from George Washington University suggest 2,975 people died—a huge increase from the 64 deaths officially counted at the time by the Puerto Rican government. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the Trump administration supports “full accountability and transparency of fatalities” but did not address whether Trump agrees with the study’s shocking findings. “The devastating back-to-back hurricanes were met with the largest domestic disaster-response mission in history,” Sanders said, referring to 2017’s catastrophic Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.