Puerto Ricans create memorial for hurricane victims, demand proper death toll count

After multiple reports this week revealed the Puerto Rican government had vastly underreported the death toll following Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans on Friday gathered to create a memorial honoring the storm’s victims.

Over several hours on Friday, more than 400 pairs of shoes were placed on the plaza in front of Puerto Rico’s capitol building in a symbolic gesture demanding that all the dead be properly counted, according to NPR.

{mosads}While the memorial honors the dead, it also serves to highlight the public’s disbelief in the government’s official death tally, which still stands at 64.

The Puerto Rican government released data on Friday showing that there were far more deaths following Hurricane Maria — at least 1,400 additional deaths in the months after Maria struck the island than during the same period the year before.

A separate Harvard University study released this week estimated that at least 5,740 deaths could be attributed to the hurricane. 

The Harvard poll was based on household surveys that make it prone to a large margin of error, but the study, according to NPR, has gained symbolic value for Puerto Ricans who say the local and federal governments’ low death tally is a dismissal of their loved ones’ deaths.

The Puerto Rican government commissioned a more precise study but it has been delayed, NPR reported.

Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism filed a lawsuit in an effort to get mortality data from the government. The government has asked the judge in charge of the case to not force the data to be released yet, NPR reported.

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last September as a Category 4 hurricane, leaving the entire island without power. Parts of the island are still without electricity. This year’s hurricane season began Friday.