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Puerto Rican officials publicly gave details of only 64 people who died in the hurricane and its aftermath. Yet a FEMA official, who requested anonymity, told CNN that Puerto Rican authorities had collaborated with the agency to co-investigate and confirm nearly four times the number of deaths related to the drug. Hurricane – 247.
According to Dasha Castillo, FEMA spokesperson, the families of the 247 people whose deaths were confirmed by FEMA on September 5 received a total of $ 565,882 in FEMA assistance to cover some expenses. Funeral and funeral. By that time, 3,005 people had requested assistance for deaths after Hurricane Maria or Hurricane Irma, Castillo said.
Of these, more than 2,350 cases are "currently in different phases of examination and treatment," she said. And 420 applications were rejected, she said. Most of them – 369 – were fired because the agency was unable to contact the person who filed the application despite several attempts, according to FEMA. Only 11 of those rejected claims were deemed unrelated to Hurricane Maria, Castillo said.
The figures, which had not yet been released, raise new questions about the speed at which federal and territorial officials are investigating and paying for the claims of the deceased in hurricanes Maria and Irma; they also highlight an apparent disconnect between what Puerto Rican officials have publicly stated about storm deaths and what they may have known privately.
Pedro Cerame, government spokesman for Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló in Washington, told CNN that FEMA uses somewhat different criteria for classifying storm-related deaths.
"FEMA has its own guidelines and protocols for that," he said.
Their process is not related to the Puerto Rican government, he said.
FEMA spokesperson Castillo said FEMA is in contact with officials in Puerto Rico and uses information from the Commonwealth Medical Officer's for decision making. In addition, FEMA uses the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's federal criteria to classify storm-related deaths, she said. These are the same criteria that Puerto Rico said use.
"I'm not sure where they got this number," the unnamed FEMA official told CNN, who was not allowed to speak, referring to the 64 deaths reported publicly by Puerto Rico.
This list of 64 people has not been updated publicly for months.
Individual accounting – not just the statistical estimation of deaths – is important in part because FEMA pays funeral expenses only in cases where a death is certified as related to the disaster.
The review of storm-related deaths is a collaboration between officials from Puerto Rico and those at the federal level, according to the FEMA official. "They are very heavily involved in all these decisions" about the deaths of those considered storm-related, said a FEMA employee, referring to officials in Puerto Rico.
It was between August 64 and August, when George Washington University released its report.
The inconsistency between the 247 deaths and the 64 deaths reported by officials in Puerto Rico is not logical, said Ariadna Godreau Aubert, executive director of Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico, a group of lawyers who advocate for victims from the storm in Puerto Rico.
"There is nothing I can say to explain this lack of consistency" between the figures, she said. "That's how they were – a lack of data and a lack of information throughout the recovery process."
"It is unfortunate" that FEMA and Puerto Rico took so long to examine the deaths and pay the benefits to the families of the deceased, said Gary Webb, professor of emergency management and disaster science at the University of Toronto. North Texas.
"For me, the main problem with this protracted process is to stand in the way of the community's recovery process – the lack of closure," he said by phone. "[F]From the point of view of family members fulfilling these demands, it is almost always a victimization – or re-victimization – that overcomes these bureaucratic hurdles. "
FEMA stated that investigations are complex and time consuming.
"Often, when the person submits an application, we have to rely on the person to get the information from the medical examiner's office – and the death certificate," said the FEMA official. Everything "takes time"
