During the past decades, a myriad of stressors have triggered a generalized coral reef declining trend. Here we present a case study from the Southeastern Reefs Marine Sanctuary (SAMAR) in the Dominican Republic. Permanent coral reef monitoring programs show that live coral cover declined in the past three years. From late 2020 to early 2022, live coral cover along the southern portion of the sanctuary ranged from 8.7%-26.3% and in late 2023 from 4.8%-13.8% (43.8% net loss). More dramatically, along the eastern portion coral cover changed from 4.2% to 1% for the same period. The rapid loss of live coral cover brought about a concomitant increase in macro algal cover across the sanctuary. Overall, we observed  63-78 % fold increase in macro algal cover from 2021 to 2023, particularly in Punta Cana where this group reached up to 28.8%. The SAMAR monitoring program targeted three major events driving the rapid benthic shifts: (1) disease epizootic events affecting reef-building corals (stony coral tissue loss disease: SCTLD), (2) the mass mortality of Diadema antillarum populations  and (3) the 2023 bleaching event. These impacts were combined with local pressures such as overfishing of key herbivores (e.g. family scaridae), which significantly reduced their abundance, hampering algal control. Local coral restoration efforts are identifying genotypes that survive to foster their sexual and asexual propagation. Our results highlight the importance of continuous collaborative monitoring programs properly replicated in space and time to support the design of coral restoration programs.