Democrats have a plan to prevent another Puerto Rico hurricane death-toll fiasco
By Alexia Fernandez Campbell
[...]
Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) will announce a bill on Monday that would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to work with scientists to identify the most accurate methodology to count deaths from major disasters.
The bill, called the Counting Our Unexpected Natural Tragedies’ Victims Act (COUNT Act), is the first step toward developing much-needed consistency and transparency around government death estimates — a glaring problem that emerged in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s landfall in Puerto Rico.
[...]
The COUNT Act would identify a standard process for local governments to do this, by studying different methods to calculate storm death and analyzing their accuracy and efficiency.
As part of the bill, FEMA would spend $2 million on a research contract with the National Academy of Medicine, whose scientists would present their findings on the most accurate methods to calculate deaths and injuries linked to natural disasters. The report would also include policy recommendations on how government agencies can come up with the most accurate estimates as quickly as possible, to make sure disaster victims and their families can get federal benefits from FEMA that they are entitled to under the law.
[...]