but when cnn investigative reporter john sutter dug into arm corps of engineers' records, he found nearly 50,000 requests for tarps still unfilled almost three months after the storm. including carman, who had broken her arm sweeping water out of her living room. [ speaking foreign language ] >> i tweeted about her situation and the next day the army corps came and put a tarp on her roof which they called like a spectacular coincidence. there were people waiting all across the island for this basic thing which was a dry place to sleep. >> reporter: carman was eventually one of the lucky ones. almost a year after maria, she finally got an actual roof. but there are tens of thousands still waiting in line. look at this. i mean, this is the kind of scene i'm used to seeing maybe a month of after a storm. two months after? this is a year later. you're still living like this. >> like it was yesterday. yeah. >> reporter: wow. wilfredo cruz filled out his paperwork months ago and heard a lot of promises unfulfilled. today when it starts raining, do you get worried? >> it's not raining, forget it

. >> including cnn investigative reporter john sutter. >> because what we were hearing anecdotally was that there were hospitals where the morgues were overflowing with people. there were certain towns where the number of dead seemed to almost match the official count which then was 16. president trump leaves the island, the death count jumps to 34 but still we weren't satisfied that that was the real flub. >> so john and leila assembled a team and started digging. >> so we started to call every single funeral home which proved to be a challenge because most of them didn't have power. they didn't have a telephone. and reaching only half the funeral homes, we realized there were 500 deaths, nine times what the government of puerto rico was reporting. early on we realized maybe we don't know the number but we know it ain't this. >> they would have to sue the puerto rican government for answers. and what they found brought outrage. >> why did it stay so low for so long and were you pressured to keep it that way? i can't believe it. that everything sticks to stefon diggs's hands? no, i can

. >> if fact, when leyla and john sutter one of cnn's investigative reporters they sued the puerto ricandieing and what were the causes and they discovered this outbreak of a waterborne illness that comes when you drink farm wastewater which people had no choice for a month afterwards. john said he took this to an epidemiologist and they would have been better if it was a foreign country because other fortunate countries would have stepped in and the response might have been more robust. >> people move on, you have the next tragedy. you guys are doing the work that demands to be done in the moment. people cannot forget because we will repeat the same mistakes the next time if people don't learn this time and the trump administration is calling it an unsung success. bill, leyla thank you and both your teams. there is a one-hour special. you have to watch it if you say that you care. it's called "storm of controversy," and it airs in just a few minutes at 11:00 p.m. eastern right here obviously on cnp. that's it for us tonight. before i have p i go i have an announcement for you. on monday

. >> if fact, when leyla and john sutter one of cnn's investigative reporters they sued the puerto ricano was dieing and what were the causes and they discovered this outbreak of a waterborne illness that comes when you drink farm wastewater which people had no choice for a month afterwards. john said he took this to an epidemiologist and they would have been better if it was a foreign country because other fortunate countries would have stepped in and the response might have been more robust. >> people move on, you have the next tragedy. you guys are doing the work that demands to be done in the moment. people cannot forget because we will repeat the same mistakes the next time if people don't learn this time and the trump administration is calling it an unsung success. bill, leyla thank you and both your teams. there is a one-hour special. you have to watch it if you say that you care. it's called "storm of controversy," and it airs in just a few minutes at 11:00 p.m. eastern right here obviously on cnn. that's it for us tonight. before i have p i go i have an announcement for you. on

hurdles and uphill battles along the way, it's a long way to go and because leyla santiago and john sutterart of this year down there, we were able to have reunions with dozens of people, really dig into the investigation and tonight put together -- sort of weave it into an island-wide hunt for the truth. >> what kind of stories are you hearing, bill, from the people you've met on the ground? >> reporter: you're hearing everything from people a year after just now getting power, still sleeping under broken roofs, waiting in line for tarps, 45,000 people are living without roofs and then this has led to a spike in suicide attempts, depression among school children as well. so, this is really a case study, wolf, in how human nature can take mother nature and sort of super charge the tragedy with mismanagement. we've found millions of bottles going to waste down there, of fresh water, that who knows if it could have saved lives but fema steps up, takes ownership. we have officials from the puerto rican government who step up and take ownership and this is less about finger pointing for politi