Black River Hurricane

South–Northern Caribbean, November 11–19, 1912 

One of the most intense tropical cyclones in Jamaican history, the Black River hurricane pummeled the southwest coast of Jamaica and the southeast coast of Cuba with 120-MPH (193-km/h) winds, 35-foot (11.6-m) seas, and a 12 to 14-foot (4–5 m) storm surge. In Jamaica, where the Black River Hurricane’s Category 3 assault was felt the hardest, some 5,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, forcing the displacement of an estimated 35,000 people. Listed as dead were 124 men, women, and children on the island, while another 2,000 were injured, making the Black River Hurricane the deadliest storm to have struck Jamaica since an unnamed hurricane claimed 43 lives there in late September 1896. In Cuba, where the Black River Hurricane’s diminished 76-MPH (122-km/h) gusts and whipping rains caused huge flood emergencies in and around Guantanamo Bay, five people were reportedly drowned or slain by airborne debris. At least $50 million in property damage was assessed in both Jamaica and Cuba, characterizing the Black River Hurricane as one of notable violence and duration.

The seventh and final storm of the 1912 hurricane season, the Black River system developed over the subequatorial waters of the southwestern Caribbean Sea, some 200 miles (322 km) north of the unfinished Panama Canal, on the afternoon of November 11, 1912. Initially just another of the 10 or more tropical waves that seasonably drift northward with the Caribbean trade winds, the Black River’s young vortex quickly deepened into a tropical disturbance, or a heavy massing of thunderstorms, by midnight on November 12 and into a tropical depression, a now-revolving collection of thunderstorms, by the midmorning hours of the following day.

Slowly spiraling around an invisible center of low barometric pressure, the Black River’s cumulonimbus convection cells extracted vast strength from the Caribbean’s evaporating waters before expending part of that heat energy as wind, gales that swiftly transformed the sea’s surface into a rich field of spindrift. Putting in gear the almost mechanical cycle of rising and condensing air that would tragically buoy the system for the next week, the Black River storm steadily intensified, saw its central barometric pressure drop from 29.58 inches (1,001 mb) on the afternoon of November 13 to 29.10 inches (985 mb) by midnight of the same day, to 28.96 inches (980 mb) by dawn of November 14.

Still classified as a tropical storm, or a cyclonic system with wind speeds of between 39 and 73 MPH (63–118 km/h), the Black River storm slowly coursed to the northwest at nearly four MPH (6 km/h), riding the nourishing winds ever closer to the limestone uplands of unsuspecting Jamaica. On the evening of November 15, as its central pressure sank to an estimated 28.79 inches (974 mb), the Black River Hurricane’s sustained 104-MPH (167-km/h) winds, interspersed with 111-MPH (179-km/h) gusts, furiously fanned the Caribbean’s surface. Tons of heat-laden spray were hoisted into its towering, 40,000-foot (13,333 m) cells and then dispersed as rain—as the light drizzle that in a matter of days would begin to settle ominously across Jamaica’s south shores.

Meanwhile, the Black River Hurricane inexorably churned across the sea, its strengthening 115-MPH (185-km/h) winds forcing dozens of crippled vessels to limp painfully into nearby ports. On the morning of November 16, 1912, as recurvature to the northeast brought the hurricane within 100 miles (161 km) of Jamaica, heavy breakers began to roll ashore at Savanna-La-Mar and Kingston, providing stormwise islanders with their first undeniable evidence that a powerful hurricane was indeed on the approach. In Jamaica, a country that has withstood an extensive history of destructive hurricane strikes, an endless round of evacuation warnings and meteorological alerts did little to save people who were killed when the hurricane’s blistering winds finally came ashore near the mouth of the Black River, 70 miles (113 km) west of Kingston, just before dusk on November 18, 1912.

The most intense tropical cyclone to have affected the island in nearly a quarter of a century, the Black River Hurricane’s eye continued curling to the northeast shortly after landfall, bringing increasing quantities of destruction to inland communities. Raking the coastal towns of Lover’s Leap and Treasure Beach with 120-MPH (193-km/h) winds and torrential rains, damage was particularly severe in Savanna-La-Mar, where the hurricane-prone harbor was clogged with shipping run aground by the hurricane’s 35-foot (11 m) breakers. Bayside warehouses swayed and then collapsed, casting hundreds of casks of Jamaican rum into the frothing surf. Thousands of palm trees toppled into the streets, linked together to form minidams that trapped the hurricane’s seven inches (178 mm) of rain behind them. Nearly 5,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed by the ensuring flash floods, and 124 people lost their lives to drowning or mudslide incidents.

Slowly pulling away from Jamaica on the morning of November 19, 1912, the Black River Hurricane trod to the northeast, bound for a second landfall in either southeast Cuba or perhaps the northwestern crag of Hispaniola. Severely weakened by its spirited bombardment of Jamaica, the hurricane rapidly lost intensity, seeing its sustained winds diminish to 69 MPH (111 km/h) by mid-morning of November 19. Unable to reintensify over the confined waters of the Windward Passage, the gusty remains of the Black River Hurricane nonetheless managed to cause extensive flooding in and around the entrance to Guantanamo Bay. Four fishermen were drowned, while another man died of injuries received in a building collapse. The dissipating traces of the Black River Hurricane were not tracked beyond the western Caribbean Sea.