Hurricane Maria and the Federal Abandonment of Puerto Rico

Overview

When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, it destroyed virtually the entire electrical grid of a U.S. territory of 3.4 million American citizens — the worst sustained power outage in U.S. history. What followed was a federal disaster response that was, by almost every measurable metric, dramatically slower and less resourced than the response to Harvey (Texas) and Irma (Florida) in the same hurricane season.

The disparity was stark. FEMA deployed fewer personnel to Puerto Rico per capita, distributed fewer supplies, and took longer to waive the Jones Act shipping restriction — which was waived immediately for the mainland states. When Puerto Rico's mayor pleaded on television for help while wading through floodwaters, Trump attacked her on Twitter.

The Death Toll Controversy

The federal government initially reported 64 deaths from Maria. The Puerto Rican government conducted its own analysis, which produced similar low numbers. In May 2018, a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health estimated 2,975 excess deaths above the normal mortality baseline in the six months following the storm — deaths from lack of medical power, contaminated water, delayed medical care, and other indirect but storm-caused causes.

Puerto Rico officially adopted the 2,975 figure in August 2018. Trump's response was to tweet that the death toll was "done by the Democrats" to make him look bad — a claim that was false. The study was conducted by an independent academic institution; its findings were confirmed by an additional government-commissioned study.

Comparative Federal Response

An AP analysis found that FEMA spent approximately $1 billion less in Puerto Rico than in Texas after Harvey and Florida after Irma, despite Puerto Rico suffering comparable or greater physical destruction per capita. The GAO documented numerous coordination failures in the federal response, including a notorious contracting scandal in which FEMA awarded a $156 million contract to provide 30 million meals to a company with one employee and $30,000 in assets — which delivered approximately 50,000 meals before the contract was terminated.

Racial and Colonial Context

Puerto Rico is a majority-Hispanic U.S. territory whose residents are American citizens but cannot vote in presidential elections. Civil rights scholars and commentators drew direct connections between the inadequate federal response and the racial composition of Puerto Rico's population — comparing the contrast with the more vigorous responses to Harvey and Irma, which primarily affected mainland white communities.

Trump dismissed these comparisons and maintained that the federal response to Maria was "an incredible, unsung success."