Trump’s False Claims Over Hurricane Maria’s Death Toll Anger, Shock Both Allies And Critics: ‘I’m Flabbergasted’

The New York Times Fact Checker: Trump’s False Claims Rejecting Puerto Rico’s Death Toll From Hurricane Maria
In a pair of tweets casting doubt on the official estimate of nearly 3,000 deaths, the president clung to an outdated estimate, wrongly suggested that doubt over the figure emerged “a long time later” and inaccurately characterized the new figure as including all deaths on the island. (Qiu, 9/13)

Bloomberg: Trump Defies Science With Rejection Of Puerto Rico Death Toll
“I’m flabbergasted,” said Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, a think tank. “People need to understand we’re not just counting immediate fatalities. We have to understand what happens long-term with ongoing conditions.” (Shields, 9/13)

The Associated Press: Trump Disputes Estimate Of Puerto Rico Storm Deaths
Public health experts have estimated that nearly 3,000 perished because of the effects of Maria. But Trump, whose efforts to help the island territory recover have been persistently criticized, was having none of that. He said just six to 18 people had been reported dead when he visited two weeks after the storm and suggested that many had been added later "if a person died for any reason, like old age." Trump's jarring comments, coming as the East Coast braced for a massive storm, offered fresh evidence of his resistance to criticism and his insistence on viewing large and small events through the prism of his own success or failure. (9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Denies Heavy Death Toll In Puerto Rico From Hurricane Maria
The researchers estimated the number of excess deaths by analyzing death certificates and other mortality data, and comparing the number of deaths during the designated period with past mortality patterns. They calculated the total number of deaths in the period was 22% higher than the number of fatalities that would have been expected, the researchers said. In analyzing Puerto Rico’s death-certification process, the study found that listed causes of death included cardiac arrest, respiratory failure and septicemia. But researchers concluded that such causes were sometimes misassigned, with physicians failing to link the deaths to the hurricane. (Ballhaus, 9/13)

The Washington Post: Trump Creates Political Storm With False Claim On Puerto Rico Hurricane Death Toll
Trump’s charge about the Puerto Rico storm — a humanitarian crisis that continues to affect life on the island a year later — baffled his advisers as well as officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who have been working to prepare the Carolinas for Hurricane Florence, the potentially deadly storm forecast to make landfall Friday. Trump’s aides said they have tried to focus the president’s attention on Florence, noting that he has been engaged in daily disaster briefings and called governors, senators and other officials representing North Carolina and South Carolina. Officials have brought large, colored charts and graphs into the Oval Office to illustrate Florence’s dangerous path for Trump, who is a visual learner. And the president made a rare trip outside, to visit the staff of the National Security Council’s resilience office housed across the street in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. (Rucker, Costa and Dawsey, 9/13)

The New York Times: As A New Hurricane Roars In, Trump Quarrels Over The Last One
Ever since the storm, Mr. Trump has pushed back against criticism that his administration was slow to respond to Puerto Rico, where the distribution of supplies, gas and food lagged and power outages lasted for months, particularly compared with a swift and efficient response to an earlier hurricane that hit Texas. It was six days after Hurricane Maria hit the island before Mr. Trump pledged to go there, even as he traveled to Texas four days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall. Full power was restored to homes only in August, nearly a year after the storm. Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican ally of Mr. Trump’s who was praised for his own leadership during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, said that Puerto Rico was an “extraordinary challenge” in part because the island’s infrastructure was in poor shape to begin with and that Mr. Trump resented being blamed for factors beyond his control. (Baker, 9/13)

Politico: First Responder Emails Appear To Undermine Trump's Narrative On Hurricane Maria
Emails released Thursday by congressional Democrats show correspondence between first responders that appears to undermine the Trump administration’s public reporting of the human toll from Hurricane Maria last year. In one email, dated Sept. 29, 2017, a first responder — whose name has been redacted — describes “finding mass graves in mud slide areas,” and requests counseling support for federal first responders in the area. An unnamed Army National Guard general is included in the correspondence. (Wilhelm, 9/13)

Meanwhile, Hurricane Florence has made landfall on the East Coast —

The New York Times: When You’re Elderly And Ill And A Storm Is Coming
When mandatory evacuation orders are issued for natural disasters like hurricanes, it poses a special challenge for those who are frail and in poor health. Patients with disabilities or who are in hospice care may be too ill to sit in cars inching along evacuation routes for hours, and their families must face the wrenching decision of whether it is better to stay or go. For people with dementia, evacuations can be especially disorienting and overwhelming. (Rabin, 9/14)

The New York Times: Florence’s Path Is Strewn With Toxic Hazards
While people can move out of harm’s way as Hurricane Florence advances on North and South Carolina, their structures remain behind to face the storm’s full force. In the Carolinas this means not only homes, schools and towns but ponds of coal ash, Superfund sites, chemical plants — and thousands of industrial hog farms with lagoons filled with pig waste. Here is where the danger lies, and why. (Pierre-Louis, Popovich and Tabuchi, 9/13)

The Associated Press: How Hurricanes Unleash Lethal Storm Surges
Behold the awesome power of water. Already the ocean is swallowing beaches, roads and anything else in the way of Hurricane Florence's monstrous storm surge. Storm surges aren't walls of water, like a tsunami, as commonly thought. Caused by a hurricane's winds pushing relentlessly on the shore, they are more like domes of high water that form as the ocean spreads inland. The high water has destructive waves on top, and it comes in addition to normal tides. (9/14)