4,645

Up until a few weeks ago, that number, 4,645, didn't really mean anything... except to maybe the people on the ground in Puerto Rico who knew that the government's estimate of 64 dead in the wake of Hurricane Maria wasn't right.  On a sub-tropical island populated by millions of people, 64 dead after the devastating effects of such a powerful hurricane would seem like some sort of miracle.  Even if it were "only" 64 dead, I'm sure that the families and friends of those dead consider their loss to be incalculable.  How much more so then when that number balloons to almost 5,000 souls lost?  One must understand the enormous amount of damage that can cause the collective psyche of the people on the island.  A people that are as close-knit and proud as the denizens of any small-town on the mainland U.S.A.  A people connected and made sturdy by the sharing of many decades of neglect, pain, and often outright abuse at the hands of their federal and local governments.  Such is the case of the "Cenizas", the ashes that were being dumped all over the island and whose dumping was being vehemently protested against by environmentalists and island residents.

 "Environmental pollutants increase the risk of developing cancer, which by the way, is the leading cause of death in our country. Exposure to environmental carcinogens is one of the main factors that leads to the development of multiple types of cancer, and one of those toxic wastes that dangerously contaminates our environment and that today is in public discussion, is the ashes product of the burning of coal. These ashes are deposited in Peñuelas, but it is known that they affect many towns and sooner or later it will be to the whole island.
The Guayama AES coal plant generates between 600 and 800 tons of ash daily. These ashes contain extremely toxic metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead, among others. The scientific evidence on the damage of these metals, the radioactivity and the particulate itself that produce the ashes is serious and forceful.

Ashes increase the risk, not only of certain types of cancer such as lung cancer, but also respiratory problems. It is no coincidence that Puerto Rico leads the list of respiratory diseases when compared to other countries. And although there may be genetic predispositions, it is known that environmental factors are largely what make these and other diseases manifest. But, in addition to cancer and respiratory conditions, the ashes also increase the risks of other problems such as spontaneous abortions, malformations, reduced cognitive capacity, severe allergies and other diseases."
 - by Vilma Calderon, writing in El Nuevo Dia newspaper

So should it really come as a surprise that in the midst of the worst natural disaster to hit American soil in decades that the people of Puerto Rico would once again be victimized by their own government?  It's a damn shame that the vulture capitalists, the equivalent of modern-day carpetbaggers, arrived faster and stayed longer than the Army Corps of engineers, FEMA, the Red Cross, or the USNS Hospital Ship Comfort; which only admitted 6 patients a day before leaving long before the job was finished, and whose early and ignoble departure certainly contributed to the deaths of so many. 

Arelis R. Hernández and Laurie McGinley, in writing for the
Washington Post, wrote:

"At least 4,645 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria and its devastation across Puerto Rico last year, according to a new Harvard study released Tuesday, an estimate that far exceeds the official government death toll, which stands at 64.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that health-care disruption for the elderly and the loss of basic utility services for the chronically ill had significant impacts across the U.S. territory, which was thrown into chaos after the September hurricane wiped out the electrical grid and had widespread impacts on infrastructure. Some communities were entirely cut off for weeks amid road closures and communications failures.

Researchers in the United States and Puerto Rico, led by scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, calculated the number of deaths by surveying nearly 3,300 randomly chosen households across the island and comparing the estimated post-hurricane death rate to the mortality rate for the year before. Their surveys indicated that the mortality rate was 14.3 deaths per 1,000 residents from Sept. 20 through Dec. 31, 2017, a 62 percent increase in the mortality rate compared to 2016, or 4,645 "excess deaths."

"Our results indicate that the official death count of 64 is a substantial underestimate of the true burden of mortality after Hurricane Maria," the authors wrote.

"The true burden of mortality."  An eloquent way to phrase the deaths of so many.  Puerto Rico is, right now, suffering through something akin to death throes.  Although far from dying, the island and it's people are still reeling from the effects of the storm and the laissez faire attitude of those with the power, resources, and obligation to help.  But one thing that the people of Puerto Rico have learned over the years is how to survive.  This is undeniably their toughest test yet, but Puerto Ricans are nothing if not resilient, resourceful, smart, inventive, gracious, and possessed of an infectious can-do spirit and an ancient music in their soul that is irrepressible.  We as a people will survive this, as we have survived so many other things, and we will be the stronger for it.

So what does this have to do with writing you may ask?  The answer, dear reader, is everything.  Everything.