Hurricane Maria
How many people died?
In early 2018, researchers at Harvard estimated that Hurricane Maria caused the deaths of roughly 4,645 persons in Puerto Rico. They also wrote that the deaths might exceed 8,000.
Later, researchers at George Washington University claimed instead that Hurricane Maria caused the deaths of roughly 2,975 persons in Puerto Rico.
But there were serious errors in both studies.
When obtaining official mortality data, I found that the Harvard team had not requested or used mortality data from Puerto Rico’s Demographic Registry. They confected excessive estimates based on random interviews.
Plus, I found that the GWU group based their estimate on a miscalculation of how many people “would have died” if the hurricane had not struck. By analyzing annual and monthly mortality rates, migrations, and certified deaths, I calculated excess deaths, thus showing that the researchers at Harvard and GWU published grossly high estimates.
“Is the GWU Estimate of Hurricane Deaths in Puerto Rico Accurate?”
The Hill, September 18, 2018: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/407186-is-the-gwu-estimate-of-hurricane-deaths-in-puerto-rico-accurate
“How to Count the Victims of Hurricane Maria”
Medium, June 17, 2018: https://medium.com/@AlMartinezUT/how-to-count-the-victims-of-hurricane-maria-ebf754fa8629
“Double Disaster: Puerto Rico’s Crisis”
interviewed on Full Measure, by Sharyl Attkisson, winner of five Emmy Awards for investigative journalism on television. Oct. 15, 2017. http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/double-disaster
Related articles and news:
“The Truth about a Warehouse in Puerto Rico,” Medium, January 28, 2020. https://medium.com/@AlMartinezUT/the-truth-about-a-warehouse-in-puerto-rico-66d09861f20d
“What Children in Puerto Rico Learned from the Hurricane,” Latina, December 29, 2017: http://www.latina.com/op-ed-what-children-puerto-rico-learned-hurricane
“Puerto Rico: Power Grid,” Full Measure (Investigative News), with Sharyl Attkisson, October 24, 2021, https://youtu.be/ok4VtM9q688?t=696
“Hurricane Recovery,” interviewed on Full Measure, by Sharyl Attkisson, Oct. 6, 2019 http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/hurricane-recovery
“Hurricane Maria [A Year Later],” interviewed on Full Measure, by Sharyl Attkisson, winner of five Emmy Awards for investigative journalism on television. Sept. 16, 2018. http://fullmeasure.news/news/politics/hurricane-maria
“Rebuilding Puerto Rico,” Pale Blue Dot: Daily Texan Podcast, March 8, 2018: https://soundcloud.com/thedailytexan/pale-blue-dot-rebuilding-puerto-rico
“UT Professor Returns to Austin after Hurricane,” KXAN, September 20, 2022, https://www.kxan.com/kxan-live/ut-professor-returns-to-austin-after-hurricane-fiona-hits-puerto-rico/
“What’s Worse: Hurricane Fiona or LUMA in Puerto Rico?” The Hill, Sept. 22, 2022, https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/3656285-whats-worse-hurricane-fiona-or-luma-in-puerto-rico/
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Alberto Martinez is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. As a professor at UT Austin, he investigates the history of science, especially Einstein and relativity theory, history of math, historical myths, and Giordano Bruno and Galileo. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
He also researches myths in political news media, The Eyes of Texas, and episodes in the history of money and corruption.
Now, he's finishing writing a novel about Albert Einstein.