In the song “America,” in “West Side Story,” Anita and her friends sing of Puerto Rico: “Always the hurricanes blowing/always the population growing/and the money owing...”
It may always have been that way, but in the last three years Puerto Rico has been hit with a devastating hurricane, a couple of minor ones, several earthquakes, island-wide power blackouts and a persistent financial crisis. But the deadliest hurricane in Puerto Rican history—even after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017—remains Hurricane San Ciriaco, which killed more than 3,300 people as it barreled across the island in six to nine hours in 1899.
The entire storm, then known as the West Indian Hurricane or the Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1899, lasted 28 days—the longest-lived Atlantic hurricane on record—as it made its way up from Cape Verde through the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Florida, North Carolina and finally out to sea. It lashed most of the Caribbean, but by far did the most damage and took the most lives in Puerto Rico.
The storm was so bad that it was front page news in The New York Times for several days at a time when the sensational Dreyfus Affair dominated the news—and it sparked a massive relief effort spearheaded by Washington and New York City, under Mayor Robert Van Wyck and Governor Theodore Roosevelt.
Much of the story is told in the Municipal Archives through letters and appeals for help from the Military Governor of Puerto Rico—which became a U.S. possession a year earlier as a result of the Spanish-American War—and the U.S. War Department to Van Wyck. An index to The New York Times articles about Puerto Rico from 1899 to 1930 compiled by the CUNY Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos is very helpful.
It was spotted off Cape Verde on August 3, but it wasn’t covered by the The New York Times until the August 8 edition, which contained a small story saying that a cyclone hurricane had slammed into the Island of Guadalupe on August 7 and that “many houses had their roofs blown off and were flooded and some of them were destroyed but no fatalities were reported.”
The news soon grew ominous. In a dispatch filed on August 9th for the August 10th edition—this was, after all, decades before television, the Internet and news-as-it-happens—The Times ran a short story on Page One headlined “WEST INDIAN HURRICANE.” A sub-headline screamed: “GREAT HAVOC IN PUERTO RICO.” The story, filed from Washington, began: “Hundreds of houses have been destroyed and several persons killed by the hurricane that has swept over the West Indies...”
The story reported that military officials in San Juan said cavalry barracks had been destroyed, “many other public buildings partially demolished and hundreds of native houses wrecked; that telephone and telegraph wires are down, and that several people have been killed.” San Juan escaped with relatively minor damage compared to the south, center and west of the island as the storm made its way diagonally northwest from Guayama.
Copy of cable from George Whitefield Davis, Military Governor of Puerto Rico, to the US War Department. Mayor Van Wyck Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Also on August 9, the military Governor of Puerto Rico, George Whitefield Davis, sent an urgent message to the Secretary of War in Washington D. C. It is among Van Wyck’s papers, and began: “A hurricane of extreme violence passed over Porto Rico [the American spelling at the time before it was changed back to Puerto Rico in 1931] yesterday.”
It went on to say that at least one temporary barrack had been destroyed, but that there was “no injury to shipping here save for two small local schooners, two sailors drowned and San Juan’s lights were temporarily disabled.” But it did warn that outside of San Juan “the losses by the inhabitants is very great and extreme suffering must result.” He noted that there were fears the damage would exceed that of the last big hurricane, San Felipe, in 1876, which caused a famine, and that “many thousands of families are entirely homeless and very great distress must follow."
The situation quickly became much worse. A front-page story filed from San Juan August 10th reported the grim news. “HUNDREDS DEAD IN HURRICANE.” The sub-headlines read: “PONCE A TOTAL WRECK,” and that “Gov. Davis Asks Gifts of Food, Clothing, and Money.” The story said the storm raged for nine hours over Puerto Rico and that in San Juan four “natives” had drowned, 80 homes were demolished and hundreds more unroofed.
Yet San Juan was largely unscathed compared to Ponce, The story continued: “A dispatch by cable from Ponce, sent at 10 o’clock this morning, says the town was almost destroyed. Almost all the frame buildings are down; the bridge is swept away, and there is no communication between the port and the city proper.” Early estimates put Ponce’s damage at $250,000, the equivalent of more than $7 million in today's dollars.
Reports from Humacao, Bayamon, Carolina and other cities and towns were similar, with dozens of deaths to people and livestock. Twenty-three inches of rain drenched Humacao in 24 hours and several other cities recorded similar tolls. The island’s coffee and orange crops were ruined and would not recover for years.
Copy of cable from George Whitefield Davis, Military Governor of Puerto Rico, to the US War Department. Mayor Van Wyck Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
A cable filed by Davis from San Juan that day, which was circulated to Van Wyck’s office recounted the damage and made an urgent plea for supplies.
“Later reports show that hurricane was far more severe in interior and southern part of the island than here,” Davis reported. “Data for the number of Porto-Ricans who have lost everything is deficient but I am forced to believe the number on the island cannot fall below one hundred thousand souls and a famine is impending.... (I ask) that two and one-half million pounds of rice and beans, equal amounts of each, be immediately shipped on transports to Ponce, some here.... There have been many deaths of natives by falling walls.... Several towns reportedly entirely demolished.”
The next day, August 11, War Secretary Elihu Root wrote a letter to Mayor Van Wyck and mayors of other large cities saying that President William McKinley had sent him a telegram asking him to make a public appeal for support “for those who have suffered in Puerto Rico.”
Root wrote that at least 100,000 Puerto Ricans were homeless and destitute. “Unless immediate and effective relief is given, these unfortunate people will perish of famine. Under these conditions the President deems that an appeal should be made to the humanity of the American people… I beg that you will call upon the public-spirited and humane people of your city to take active and immediate measures.”
Appeal to Mayor Van Wyck from Secretary of War Elihu Root, August 11, 1899. Mayor Van Wyck Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Appeal to Mayor Van Wyck from Secretary of War Elihu Root, August 11, 1899. Mayor Van Wyck Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
By August 12, a New York Times correspondent had arrived in Ponce and filed this report from that devastated city. The headline screamed: “2,000 DROWNED IN PONCE DISTRICT.” A subhead said: “300 Bodies of Storm Victims Already Buried… Natives Uneasy and Cavalry Patrol is Established… Villages Destroyed.”
The story said the storm had “destroyed the crops and demolished a number of houses on the higher ground, while the floods destroyed bridges and houses and caused great loss of human life.” Some major cities were destroyed and some “entire villages were swept out of existence.” In response, Van Wyck and then-New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt urged New Yorkers to contribute to the “Puerto Rican Hurricane Relief Fund.”
Appeal for aid from Randolph Guggenheimer, City Council President (and Acting Mayor of New York), August 12, 1899. Mayor Van Wyck Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.
Appeal for aid from Randolph Guggenheimer, City Council President (and Acting Mayor of New York), August 12, 1899. Mayor Van Wyck Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.
By August 13, the storm had left the Caribbean and churned on toward Florida, Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But officials in Puerto Rico still had no idea of the exact death toll and the breadth of the devastation.
The following week, two ships, the military transport ship the McPherson and steamer Evelyn of New York and Puerto Rico, reportedly carried hundreds of millions pounds of rice, beans, green peas and bread to Puerto Rico The relief shipment included such supplies as 12,600 vests for women, 4,200 men’s undershirts, 600 pairs of pants and clothes for 215 children. Other transports followed.
Despite the efforts of relief agencies and the people of New York and other cities, the scars of San Ciriaco remained for decades. The final death toll from the entire hurricane was 3,855—with 3,369 of those in Puerto Rico alone. Total damage in Puerto Rico was estimated at $20 million—about $620 million today.
There would be other deadly hurricanes after San Ciriaco, but only Hurricane Maria came close to that death toll in 2017, when an estimated 3,000 perished on the island, though some claim the toll was higher.