Between September 19-21, 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the entire island of Puerto Rico and caused a major humanitarian crisis. Originally as a powerful Category 5 hurricane, Maria was the strongest storm to impact the island in nearly 90 years. Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico on September 20 as a high-end Category 4 storm, bringing a large storm surge, very heavy rains, and wind gusts well above 100 mph (160 km/h). It flattened neighborhoods, crippled the island's power grid, and caused an estimated 2,982 fatalities and US$90 billion in damage.

Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the deadliest and costliest hurricane to strike the island of Puerto Rico, and is the deadliest hurricane to strike the country of Dominica and the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The most intense tropical cyclone worldwide in 2017, Maria was the thirteenth named storm, eighth consecutive hurricane, fourth major hurricane, second Category 5 hurricane, and deadliest storm of the extremely active 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. Maria was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Mitch in 1998, and the tenth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record. Total monetary losses are estimated at upwards of $91.61 billion, mostly in Puerto Rico, ranking it as the fourth-costliest tropical cyclone on record.