San Juan, August 10 (RHC)-- The colonial government of Puerto Rico has quietly acknowledged in a report posted on-line that in all likelihood more than 1,400 people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria -- a figure that is more than 20 times the official death toll.  The "official toll" stands at 64.

Hurricane Maria cut through the island on September 20th last year, knocking out power and initially killing about a dozen people.

The New York Times reports that in a draft of a study to Congress requesting $139 billion in recovery funds, the Puerto Rican government admitted that 1,427 more people died in the last four months of 2017 compared with the same time frame in the previous four years.

The increase was enormous, particularly considering that Puerto Rico’s population has declined considerably in the past few years.

The 400-page report was posted on-line in July and sat largely unnoticed for weeks.