Hurricane Maria killed 2,975 people in Puerto Rico, according to the results of a long-awaited study commissioned by the US government, amid controversy over the true toll of the 2017 monster storm. "The results of our epidemiological study suggest that, tragically, Hurricane Maria led to a large number of excess deaths throughout the island," said principal investigator Carlos Santos-Burgoa, a professor of global health at George Washington University.

"Certain groups -- those in lower income areas and the elderly -- faced the highest risk." The study tracked excess deaths related to Hurricane Maria from September 2017 to February 2018, and found the toll was "22 per cent higher than the number of deaths that would have been expected during that period in a year without the storm".