On Thursday, August 9th, Congress released a request from Puerto Rico’s government that puts the death toll on the island from Hurricane Maria last September at over 1,400. The news arrives even as the official count from the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety remains at 64 deaths.

The 400 page document, “Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation” whose draft was submitted for public comment in July and whose final version was submitted to Congress last week. It details the proposed $139 billion in reconstruction projects the island commonwealth’s government is seeking assistance with in the wake of Maria.

The 1,427 figure was first revealed on June 13th, one day after CNN and Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism sued for the report to be made public. NPR reported Puerto Rico’s government released partial records of hundreds of deaths in the aftermath of the storm that brought into question the official figure, while a backlog of hundreds of unclaimed bodies in a leading island morgue led to more question marks, according to the AFP.

The final version of the report, according to the New York Times, has revised the language to say that the deaths “may or may not be attributable” to Hurricane Maria, as well as removing the 1,427 figure from the final charts. The report also hedges the number of deaths occurring in the four months after Maria were more than “normal” compared to the previous four years, as reported by the AP.

The New York Times first reported on the low-key proposal two weeks ago. Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Public Safety Héctor Pesquera responded strongly in a statement that the figure did not reflect “the official number of deaths attributable to Hurricane Maria.” But Pesquera admitted that officials have long been expecting the number to rise.

The official death toll of 64 has been difficult for many to take as gospel. New York Times reported that accusations of undercounting have plagued the administration of Governor Ricardo Rosselló, and Secretary Pesquera in particular. Last December, Governor Rosselló admitted the official number was off, and Secretary Pesquera has said the official figure wouldn’t be changed until a George Washington University independent study is finished, which is expected in the coming weeks.

Many analysts and academics believe the number is far higher than the official toll, but the lack of consensus on the figure has led to a partisan streak.

Not many articles have gotten as much attention as the New England Journal of Medicine publication of a study funded by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on May 29, 2018 that estimates a death toll between 793 and 8,498 people. This study was quickly picked up and used in headlines. FiveThirtyEight notes, however, that the 2018 study surveyed 3,300 households and found that out of that number, there were 38 deaths reported between the time the hurricane hit and December 31st, 2017. The study then calculated a mortality rate from the number, and used the difference in the mortality rate from the year before.

Tropical Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017, just weeks after Hurricane Irma devastated the island. The storms arrived while Puerto Rico was in the middle of a major financial crisis and accelerated an already unprecedented migration from the island. It was described as an “exodus’ by some academics, according to CNN. The hurricane led to widespread damage to infrastructure with impassable roads, interrupted water supplies, spotty electricity, failing telecommunication networks, and wide-spread inaccessibility to medical care.

Just this week, Puerto Rico’s electric utility said it had restored almost all the power to the island, eleven months after the hurricane. As well, this Wednesday FEMA denied Governor Rossello’s request that it keeps paying 100% of the clean-up bill. FEMA is asking Puerto Rico to put forward 10% to the recovery process in light of FEMA’s claim the emergency is over, WBUR News reported on Friday.