San Ciriaco

From a personal letter written in August, 1899, immediately after the powerful San Ciriaco hurricane pummeled Ocracoke Island with winds of 120 mph:

"As darkness came on, the wind and rain increased. We couldn't see a thing, and everything in the house except babies were perfectly quiet. Poor little Minnie was coiled on a corner of the bed expecting to be washed away. Mrs. Hooker read a chapter in the Bible, then Miss G. Styron prayed, then Mrs. Hooker. The house was rocking and water was sloshing just like a boat...The water was rising then very fast... from eight until ten o'clock nobody but the ones that were there could realize how awful it was."

Hurricane San Ciriaco lasted for 28 days (the longest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded), killed nearly 3,500 people in Puerto Rico, and had the highest Accumulated Cyclone Energy in history.

Take a look at the following link (if you scroll down the page you can locate coordinates close to Ocracoke's which are Latitude: 35-06'53'' N &
Longitude: 075-58'52'' W) :  

http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/at18993.asp?MR=1

No one on Ocracoke Island died in this storm, although two men on a sailing vessel were injured and listed in critical condition when the storm abated.

Our current Ocracoke Newsletter is an account of Infant & Childhood Mortality on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news072113.htm.