Santo Domingo.- Today marks the 92nd anniversary of the Hurricane San Zenón, with winds exceeding 240 kilometers per hour, hit the Dominican Republic, destroying the city of Santo Domingo and causing the death of more than 4,000 people; later moving through San Cristóbal, Peravia, Azua, San Juan and Elías Piña.
It was on September 3, 1930 when the powerful hurricane caused intense downpours, electrical storms, with penetrations of the sea from the early hours of the morning and due to the fact that a large part of the houses were made of boards, they were demolished.
According to the historical records of the engineer Antonio Cocco Quezada, the city was destroyed, with hundreds of human lives lost, despite the fact that the Meteorology Service warned that a cyclone was approaching.
The system had formed about 150 kilometers east of the Lesser Antilles on August 29-30, 1930, and immediately began moving west/northeast toward the Caribbean region.
It was the first of September when a press cable was received in Santo Domingo from Washington, United States, reporting that a disturbance of considerable intensity had been located northeast of the island of Martinique, Lesser Antilles.
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On August 31 and September 1, the hurricane moved to the south of Puerto Rico and on the 2nd the first effects of abnormal waves and occasional gusts of wind began to be felt.
At that time, the city of Santo Domingo had about 70,000 inhabitants. In some neighborhoods and residential sectors that were destroyed, the hurricane left a balance (according to the work of Ing. Juan Ulises Garcia Bonnelly) of 20,000 injured, 4,000 dead and 25 million pesos in losses, (Cambiaso 4000 dead, 50 million in losses and 15,000 injured) catastrophe produced in a few hours of the hurricane hitting the city.
Months later, according to health authorities, there were 8,000 dead and 20,000 injured. The dead were buried in the Plaza de la Colombina.
