Two weeks ago, a FiveThirtyEight analysis found that Puerto Rico had received far less media coverage immediately after Hurricane Maria than other U.S. locations recently hit by powerful hurricanes had gotten. This week, we went back to the same data sources to see if things had changed.1 And they have. Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on a Wednesday morning, but it wasn’t until the following Monday, a full five days later, that the island really started to get a sustained burst of attention from the media (and from the president’s Twitter account), though it still didn’t reach the levels of coverage that other hurricanes got.
I’m glad someone is saying this. Also, once the next distraction comes up, we’ll all move on. There’s still FEMA budget for Katrina cleanup. Just because the media moves on doesn’t mean the situation is good.