1597
'Sixteenth century Jamaica had no meteorological warnings that a storm born in the Leewards was headed for the island. The first sign of impending disaster came during the previous day when an ominous stillness filled the atmosphere and not a leaf stirred on the trees. The morning sun was reported to have changed to an awesome orange hue in the late afternoon, while several hours previously storm winds began to stir, mounting in intensity as time progressed until black clouds darkened the heavens with heavy rains driven by the fury of the storm. Gusting up to one hundred miles an hour, the hurricane swept through the streets of Santiago de la Vega, driving the rain with such force that it entered every crevice, lifted roofs from their supports, and hurled them miles away, while walls collapsed like paper. The storm’s [counter-]clockwise action struck the town first from the south [north?]; then, after the eye’s lull of fifteen minutes, struck it with the same fury from a northerly [southerly?] direction - four hours of merciless battering. The capital was in worse condition than Shirley [Sir Anthony - an English pirate] had left it the previous year, and Villalobos [Abbot of Jamaica] was a much humbled prophet as he stood before his church on the morning of 2 August 1597 and viewed its ruined walls and gaping roof, then walked over to the Dominican monastery leveled to the ground. He recalled the words he wrote to Philip II, [Nov 1582], “Hurricanes there used to be, but by the grace of God, they have ceased.” '
History of the Catholic Church in Jamaica, Francis J. Osborne, S.J., 1988 pp 60-1
However, I think Fr. Osborne has the wind directions etc the wrong way around in the highlighted sentence.
See http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/D3.html
' ... when a low pressure starts to form north of the equator, the surface winds will flow inward trying to fill in the low and will be deflected to the right and a counter-clockwise rotation will be initiated. The opposite (a deflection to the left and a clockwise rotation) will occur south of the equator.'
