In 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico with maximum sustained winds of 250 kilometres an hour. It devastated communities and infrastructure, was associated with nearly 3,000 deaths and caused tens of billions of dollars in losses.
The storm was a disaster for nature too. On land, severe forest damage led to dramatic declines in forest birds. In the sea, storms moved large amounts of sand and mud across the seafloor, burying and destroying native shallow seagrass meadows.
