While the official death toll for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico remains at 64, one resident in the municipality of Yabucoa says she knows that number can't be accurate, because she lived it, and her community continues to bury more people in the aftermath of the storm.

• Darlene Rivera Roldan lost her mother 3 months after Maria
• Without electricity, Roldan's mother could not keep medications refrigerated
• Residents of Yabucoa have buried 236 since storm

The wrought iron archway over Yabucoa’s cemetery says "Puerta a la Eternidad," or "Door to Eternity."

But the people of Yabucoa believe many have recently walked through that door too soon. 

Darlene Rivera Roldan, who oversees the cemetery, speaks from experience. 

“I saw my mom die in three months, deteriorating physically and emotionally. My mom barely had wrinkles,” she said.

Roldan’s mother now lies in one of the cemetery's graves. She passed away in December, three months after Hurricane Maria. 

Without electricity, she was unable to keep her medication refrigerated. 

“She would be alive today because she was strong," Roldan said. "She still walked around the town by herself. She made her own food, and did everything by herself,” Roldan said. 

Yabucoa has seen a spike in deaths -- burying 236 people since Maria. Workers are digging an additional row of graves to deal with the increase. 

Yet, the official death toll remains at a number that's been disputed for months, with many experts estimating the true number to be in the thousands. 

Just last week, the Puerto Rican government under court order released numbers that show there were 1,427 more deaths from September to December 2017 than the average for that same time period.

But that figure still doesn’t specifically indicate if the deaths were hurricane-related.

The U.S. government does not have a concrete definition of what counts as a "storm-related death." Currently, the National Hurricane Center only counts deaths caused directly by a storm, adding to the ongoing debate on Puerto Rico's death toll. 

“Look, I’d say that the government has been a bit irresponsible in that aspect," Roldan said. "They really haven’t put themselves in our shoes."

If it weren’t for the effects of the storm, she said, there wouldn’t be so many holes in the ground. 

“It doesn’t matter what they say or what they don’t say," Roldan said. "The deaths are directly related to the hurricane, because I saw it, and no one can tell me otherwise, because I lived it."