If the official toll is 11 dead, the rumor has reported thousands of victims.
A team of scientists within the framework of the ANR TIREX program investigated the rumor after the passage of Hurricane Irma, precisely that linked to the number of deaths. Annabelle Moatty, Delphine Grancher, Clément Virmoux and Julien Cavero notably sought to understand how the rumor was born, spread and above all persisted over time despite the denials of the authorities. They came to Saint-Martin twice - in November 2017 and in November 2018 - and spoke to about sixty people. They published their work in an article on Geocarrefour.
Reasons that explain the human toll of 11 dead
In Saint-Martin, the official human toll is eleven dead. "Given the extent of the damage, the number of victims may seem relatively small but can be explained by various factors," admit the scientists. These include the prevention policy and preparation for the passage of the event, which made people know how to protect themselves.
“In the interviews carried out during the two field missions, the people interviewed all claimed to have made water and food supplies, taken measures to protect their accommodation and, for some, had evacuated with relatives to be better security, ”they say. "Our investigations show that the kinetics of the hurricane allowed some to change refuge during the passage of the eye and that the durations of submersion were most of the time short enough to be able to survive there", add they.
In addition, they believe that “the level of development of the territory also explains this assessment. In fact, access to health services has been maintained, human resources have been deployed to reinforce actions to secure people and goods ”. Despite the disaster, the hospital has always been operational and the wounded in absolute emergency were quickly evacuated to Guadeloupe and Martinique by plane or by customs boats. Access to medicines has also always been possible thanks to Red Cross dispensaries. What, on the other hand, was not the case in Puerto Rico where the number of indirect deaths was very high after Maria (continued in our next edition).
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