Hurricane Maria swept across Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, as a Category 4 hurricane and the fifth strongest storm ever to hit the United States. The hurricane’s 155 mile-per-hour winds left most of the island without power; it could take months for that power to get fully restored.

This pair of Landsat 8 images shows the large-scale damage done to the island. The lush green landscape in the 2016 image is replaced by a faded green. The strong winds stripped the leaves off trees to cause the degraded landscape. The forest is expected to recover.

Future Landsat 8 data acquisitions will be useful in assessing the changes caused by the winds, rain, and storm surge of the multiple hurricanes in 2017.