Ramon Cruz Laboy, a 75-year-old who kept to himself and never wanted to burden his relatives, died January 24 from medical complications that resulted from a femur fracture he suffered during a gust of wind from Hurricane Maria.

It's been more than eight months since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. People are still using tarps for roofs. Officials are worried another storm could wipe out power on the island again. And a new estimate of the death toll suggests thousands more died than we knew. CNN correspondent Leyla Santiago and senior investigative reporter John Sutter are seeing it unfold firsthand, documenting the devastation and digging on the death toll. I asked them to give me and others on the mainland a window into what it's really been like over there. Our Slack conversation, condensed and lightly edited for clarity, is below.