Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean in September 2017, but residents continue to die as a result of the dire conditions in which the islands are still mired.
Update 29 August 2018 – The government of Puerto Rico has announced that the death toll from Hurricane Maria in the country stands at at least 2,975. The figure, the result of the latest research, is 46 times higher than the data provided in December, when the death toll stood at 64. This is not a list of names, but "an estimate that may still change" – said Governor Ricardo Rosselló – because it takes into account people who died in the months following the hurricane's passage due to inadequate healthcare or lack of electricity and drinking water. The island's infrastructure is still being rebuilt: the authorities are calling on the United States government to provide $139 billion (approximately €119 billion) in aid.
Update 21 September 2017 – Dominican government spokesman Charles Jong told US broadcaster CNN that the hurricane's death toll has risen to 14. United States President Donald Trump declared a state of natural disaster in Puerto Rico, where Governor Ricardo Rosselló confirmed the death of one person following Hurricane Maria's passage. The hurricane reached the Dominican Republic this morning.
Update 20 September 2017, 20:02 – The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital, Carmen Yulín Cruz told US television channel MSNBC that it could take "four to six months" to restore electricity to the island. The hurricane has dropped to category 3 and is located off the country's north-western coast.
Update 14:35 – Hartley Henry, adviser to Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, has stated that at least seven people died as a result of the hurricane's passage over the island. This is reported by the news agency ANSA.
Update 12:43 – Hurricane Maria is battering Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea. The eye of the cyclone is located over the town of Yabucoa, in the south-east of the country. It is currently a category 4 hurricane; witnesses are already reporting roofs being torn off and flooding.
Hurricane Maria reached the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands this morning, lashing it with winds of 145 kilometres per hour. The alert had been issued yesterday, allowing many residents to move to safe facilities.
Maria struck Martinique and Dominica, in the French Antilles archipelago, during the night between Monday and Tuesday, before moving on to Guadeloupe in the morning. The hurricane reached category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures the intensity of tropical cyclones.
Fortunately, Martinique does not appear to have sustained serious damage, but 50,000 homes were left without electricity and two municipalities are without drinking water. The hurricane caused two "very minor" injuries, said civil security director general Jacques Witkowski. The situation in Dominica is more difficult: the island was battered by winds of 260 kilometres per hour that tore the roofs off most buildings, including the official residence of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt. He stated on his Facebook page that Dominica had "lost everything that money can buy". There are currently no reported fatalities.
In Guadeloupe, schools and public buildings were closed and the highest-risk areas were evacuated. The hurricane left the island in the early afternoon on Tuesday, after causing severe flooding and cutting off lines of communication. Two people lost their lives and two are reported missing.
Hurricane Maria spared the islands of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin and headed towards Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The countries are still struggling in the aftermath of Irma, the hurricane that just two weeks ago devastated the Caribbean and Florida, causing a total of sixty deaths and fifty billion dollars' worth of damage in the United States alone.
