They often
combine the features of a tornado and a cloudburst, and while the
furious whirlwind wrecks houses, uproots trees and strips forests bare
of leaves, the accompanying severe rains swell the streams to abnormal
height and cause extensive inundations. The hurricane season is
reckoned as beginning in July and ending in October and when during
this period a sudden fall of the barometer announces the proximity of
unusual atmospheric disturbances all shipping keeps to the harbors and
the dwellers on shore take measures to guard against the devastating
rage of the wind.
The first West Indian hurricane of which we have any record was that
of 1502 which destroyed the first city of Santo Domingo and sank a
Spanish fleet. More recent storms felt in Santo Domingo were those of
1834, 1865, 1876 and 1883. That of September 6, 1883, desolated the
southwestern provinces of the Republic, and the rise of the Ozama
River swept away the bridge connecting the capital with the opposite
shore. The hurricane of 1899 which laid waste the nearby island of
Porto Rico was scarcely felt in Santo Domingo.
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