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Thank you so much. "outfront" now, ley leyla santiago and frank and glow yeah. leila, you were there before, during and after hurricane maria. you saw the devastation and pushed the government to get a real count of the death toll from maria, which, again, stands at 2,975 people. does anyone in puerto rico think this was an unsung success? >> reporter: kate, i think a lot of people are very proud of how far they have come in their own recovery efforts, but i want to tell you what i've seen over the last few days that really paint the picture as far as if this recovery really was an unsung su...

Be with us. >> good to be with you. >> first, let me ask your reaction to hearing the president call the administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico as a, quote, incredible unsung success. to remind our viewers of the deaths from maria in puerto rico, 2,975. what is your reaction to the remarks of the president? >> monstrous fiction that cost lives. because if the head of the government doesn't see anything wrong with the response, lives are lost, to say nothing that the island was prostrate for the better part of a year. most of its power out for months and months and months, ...

Infrastructure going in. that's what we're working on right there as well as building a commonwealth and a municipal capability and emergency management that did not exist before the storm. >> understood. but when you say that those four legs all have to operate well, do you think that the federal government did all it could in maria? i'm asking because we haven't gotten to you since the death toll went up. as you know it's 46 times what the government said originally. there were 2,975 people killed in puerto rico as a result of maria and so is there anything that fema and the federal governme...

Infrastructure that was allowed to decay. that's the first time that fema has ever had to do that in history as i'm aware so we take that forward. now fema is one of the largest employers in puerto rico. we've hired over 1,800 puerto ricans to become part of that emergency management arm to make sure that we build a strong backbone for the commonwealth and emergency management and at the local level. so we've got -- there's a lot of work that needed to do to put that whole community response into place and that's what we're concentrated on. >> i understand. i mean, i just think that for the 2,...

The current estimate for deaths in puerto rico according to the independent study done by george washington university puts the death toll in puerto rico at 2,975 people. >> yeah, katy, that was a striking comment. let's start first with this storm we're anticipating in the next few days now. the president indicating it is his top priority, the safety of the american people. they will spare no expense in preparation for this. preparing the response necessary along the coastline. within the last couple hours, declaring an emergency in the state of virginia, which frees up federal funds to help ...