FEMA Boss Backs Trump’s Puerto Rico Death Denials: “I Don’t Know Why the Studies Were Done.”

Brock Long makes a bizarre segue to “spousal abuse” to defend the president.

NBC News

As Hurricane Florence continues to savage the Carolinas, FEMA Administrator Brock Long on Sunday defended the president in undermining academic studies tying thousands of deaths to last September’s hurricane in Puerto Rico. The studies were “all over the place,” said Long in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I don’t know why the studies were done.” 

A George Washington University study found that 2,975 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria—a number that Donald Trump has repeatedly denied on Twitter over the past week, characterizing the death toll as a conspiracy by “Democrats” to “make me look as bad as possible.”

Long explained, “What we’ve got to do is figure out why people die from direct deaths, which is the wind, the water and the waves, buildings collapsing.” He added that FEMA doesn’t count deaths, but relies on counts from local county coroners. “You might see more deaths indirectly occur as time goes on because people have heart attacks due to stress,” he said. “They fall off their house trying to fix their roof, they die in car crashes because they went through an intersection where the step lights weren’t working.”

Long also noted that “all kinds of studies” have found that “spousal abuse goes through the roof” after natural disasters. “You can’t blame spousal abuse after a disaster on anybody.”

Long also defended himself amid allegations that he misused federal vehicles in contravention of departmental rules. Long vowed to stay on in his role while a federal watchdog investigates. “I’m here to serve my country every day. That’s all I do,” he said. “And when it’s over, whenever it ends, I’m ready to go back home, love my family.”

The Trump Administration’s Puerto Rico denials are continuing in the devastating wake of Hurricane Florence, which has so far claimed at least 14 lives—a number officials expect to rise. 

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate