Disasters in Haiti

Prepared by Bob Corbett

• 1508, July or Aug. Hurricane destroyed Santo Domingo. (Galvan, p. 71)
• 1737 Hurricane levelled St. Louis de Sud. (Heinl, p. 34)

• 1751 Earthquake (Heinl, p. 34). Geggus (Major Port Towns, p. 88) says that Port-au-Prince was levelled by this quake.

• 1760 Sever damage to Port-au-Prince. (Howard)

• 1770, June 3. Earthquake at Port-au-Prince and Okay. (Brown, vol. I) 200 dead. (Heinl, p. 34) p. 31 Sir Spenser St. John claims an earthquake of 15 days destroyed Port-au-Prince. Geggus (Major Port Towns, p. 88) also mentions it.

• 1784. Geggus (Major Port Towns, p. 88) says a major fire destroyed much of the business district of Port-au-Prince.

• 1816. August 18, 1816 hurricane at Port-au-Prince reported by Quaker missionary, Stephen Grellet. Touched other towns too.

• 1830. Heinl (see 1831) tells of rare hurricane in Port-au-Prince. Given that Port-au- Prince does not border the southern coast and that a mountain range protects it from the south, as well as from the east, a hurricane here would be quite rare.

• 1831 Hurricane of 1831 destroyed south. see Heinl after page 177.

• 1842, May 7. earthquake. Shook whole island. (see Heinl, p. 177) 10,000 people dead in O Kap. Wrecked P-a- Paix, Mole St. Nicola, O Kap and Fort Liberte. Hit Dominican Republic too. See Rodman, Black Republic. He claims the Citadelle was seriously damaged by this quake. See Sir Spenser St. John, p. 12. He claims several thousand died. Also p. 87 "...which injured every city in the northern department, and almost annihilated Cap Haitien." In the letters of Herbert Tyson, (USN) he says "The town is not, at present, a place of much importance, having been destroyed by an earthquake in 1841, at which time about six thousand people perished. It had then a population of from sixty to seventy thousand, and was one of the largest towns on the island. Now there are scarcely six thousand persons in it." He misreports the date as 1841, but he was operating from discussion with people when he was there in 1865.

• 1843. Sumner Wells (Naboth's Vinyard) says whole island was devastated. p. 84. Might the 1842/43 claims actually be same quake?

• 1875, Sept. Jacmel hit by a hurricane. (Heinl, p. 260 or so)

• 1887, Sept. 23. Heavy earthquake. Shook north, northwest, Gonaives, St. Marc and brought down the new cathedral of Port-au-Paix. (Heinl, p. 294.)

• 1930, Sept. 3. Hurricane devastated DR. Did it do any damage to Haiti? Yes. Many killed. See Danticat, Farming of Bones, p. 25.

• 1952, Oct. 27. Earthquake reported at Anse-a-Veau. Heinl, p. 570, note # 50. Rodman's Black Republic. p. 45. Also Rodman, p. 122. He claims it changed the waterfall at Saut de Baril.

• 1954, Oct. 11. Hurricane Hazel in 1954 destroyed several towns and 40% of the coffee trees and 50% of the cacao trees. p. 9 THE MAGIC ISLAND (whoops, this is wrong, since Seabrook's book was published in 1929!. I'll have to check page 9 and see what's there. Heinl, p. 569. Oct. 11. Hit Port-a-Piment.

• 1963, 1st week of October. Flora (From Papa Doc book) (From Gold, Nightmare) killed thousands. p. 134. Earthquake

• 1964 Cleo Papa Doc book)

• 1965 Inez (From Papa Doc book) (Heinl, p. 647 says Inez was in 1966.)

• 1998, September 23, 1998. See other computer files for details.

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