It has become customary to gauge the scale of calamities by the official count of the dead. In this perspective, Puerto Rico’s revision of the death toll from last September’s horrific Hurricane Maria to 2,975 from 64 elevates the storm to one of the greatest catastrophes of recent times in the United States, far exceeding Hurricane Katrina and nearly equaling the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
That should prod the federal government and the American people to finally provide the attention and resources that this ravaged American territory still sorely needs. Alas, that was not President Trump’s response to the latest and most authoritative analysis of the devastation wreaked by the great storm.
On Wednesday, the president smugly declared that “we did a fantastic job,” and he expounded on geography and pre-hurricane problems with the electrical grid as reasons for the level of destruction, just as he did in the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Maria and Irma. Ten months ago, he contrasted the then-modest estimate of the death toll in Puerto Rico with that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which he called a “real catastrophe.”
No hint of horror at the scale of suffering. No sign of recognition that fellow Americans had gone through one of our era’s most wrenching disasters. No words of sympathy. No promises that his government would be better prepared next time.
